“Postcard from” is my semi regular weekend series of non recipe posts. It’s been a while since I did one but I’m starting them again.
Whether it’s on TV or film, every now and again, the glimpse of somewhere I’ve been before pictured on screen fills me with excitement. Daniel Craig walking down the street where I used to work in Layer Cake. An obscure Tim Roth movie filmed in and around Southgate tube station. Borough Market in Bridget Jones’ Diary.
Sometimes it’s the other way round. I see somewhere on screen and am determined to seek it out and go there myself to feel a little of the magic I felt when watching. Working out which French beach featured the wooden chalets on stilts in Betty Blue with no internet took some detective work I can tell you. (It’s Gruissan near Narbonne in the Languedoc region)
About 4 years ago, in the closing titles of 80s detective series Bergerac on UK Gold, I saw a picture of the plane tree lined pool shown below. Not many people remember that the closing series relocated to Provence rather than its usual Jersey. I have holidayed in Provence many times and was intrigued by this pool which was shown at the very end of each episode. How come I’d never seen it in a tourist guide or on my travels? Where on earth was it?
I was determined to find it, not because Bergerac, my pregnancy craving at the time (others dip Cheerios in ketchup; I watched endless episodes of Bergerac and did 3 Sudoku puzzles per day but have done neither before or since, honest) had been filmed there but out of my quest to know every corner of Provence.
Shortly afterwards I saw my Provencal pool onscreen once more. It was featured in what was to become my favourite film ever, Ridley Scott’s romantic comedy A Good Year starring Russell Crowe and Marion Cottilard. Now this film did not go down well with critics and you’ll probably find more people admitting to liking Bergarac than the film but I know from conversations on Twitter that at least three people, including Juls share my love of it.
Image via bastidequest.wordpress.com
Even freakier, Max (Russell Crowe) has inherited Jim Bergerac’s new house, this gorgeous bastide – Chateau la Canorgue in the Luberon. That’s just spooky.
Happily, locations in the film are much easier to research than a random film still in one series of Bergerac‘s closing titles and I soon deduce that the Provencal pool is in Cucuron, an understated village north of Aix en Provence with no other claim to fame. I conspired to visit during my weekend in St Remy de Provence. We drove there on the Sunday after visiting the busy brocante at L’Isle sur la Sorgue.
We drove to Cucuron and discovered the sleepiest of Provencal villages. Streets were deserted. Saucepans belonging to vielle madames clattered as we passed kitchen windows. Cats barely lifted eyelids to look at us. There was no sign of a square with this huge pool centre stage which had accommodated an orchestra and outdoor cinema showing clips like Charles Trenet singing Boum where Max and Fanny kiss after everyone else has bolted in the rain storm.
Eventually, on the point of giving up, we found a map marking L’Etang and tucked away in a corner we found the pool with a couple of cafes and sat down for our less romantic glass of Sprite and an ice cream next to the local fire station (odd… they disguised this in the film).
I haven’t been able to find the scene online but instead I found this short clip of Max arriving in Provence… You can pick up copies of A Good Year for £3.99 on dvd. If you like France, you will enjoy it.
Your photographs are gorgeous. I have never been to Provence. It looks lovely and how I imagined. Thank you for sharing. I love these posts of where people have been and what they did there.
Ah I love Provence… I sense several postcards will come from there this year. Glad you enjoyed.
I like your keen eye when watching films! I frequently watch them in the same way, particulary films post WW2. Where did they film that. No TV antennas. Although, I reckon I did once spot a currect tax disc on a car in ‘Foyle’s War’! Provence is wonderful, happy memories, Villeurbane is not quite the same! There is a gentle film series shot around the Lyon area and occassionaly here, ‘Louis la Brocante’ They do tend to chose the photogenic views. Enjoy when you can! XX
Less cerebrally I recently noticed a modern church sign outside a church in “Carry On Dick” on Film4 at Christmas. It’s meant to be 1700 or something but was very obviously the late 1960s outside!
Love those clicks, Sarah!e Cat and the rustic background is really eye catching.
I definitely share your love! My Provence tour last year was totally dedicated to find the film locations and venues!
I desperately love that film, the atmosphere, Russel Crowe… 😛
Thank you for this delicious POSTcard POST! Lovely memeories!
This is such fun to read Sarah – you’re a better detective than Bergerac ever was, or at any rate a lot more entertaining.
I loved A Good Year. Lovely film.
Although I have never been to Provence. Sadly.
Pictures are amazing, I love the first particularly :o)
Kisses from a french girl !
It is a beautiful location indeed. No wonder you were intrigued. Thanks for virtually taking us there!
Ps. That cat is too cute.
We collect ideas for places worth visiting when we watch the Tour de France each year. It was what got me hooked rather than the actual cycling but the excitement of the race draws you in too. We have spotted and then visited some super places in France by this method that we would not otherwise have seen, however not Cucuron – which looks as if it ought to be on my list!
A year or two ago we stumbled on the chalets on stilts at Gruissan Plage, near Narbonne after we had visited the ancient bastide town of Gruissan, which is charming and well worth the trip.
We are now researching this year’s holiday route…!
Look forward to seeing more of your postcards.
hopeeternal
‘Meanderings through my Cookbook’
http://www.hopeeternalcookbook.wordpress.com
Glad you liked the gingerbread post! My deadline was a personal one, not to do with Forver Nigella. maybe my fervent typing ruined all sense of what I meant to write. But needless to say, I never bothered going out in the end! 🙂
And I need to get to Provence at some point!
Yes you must, you must!
Hi there
Loved the film, my favourite too – still cant understand some of the reviews it got.
Do you know if they do screenings there like in the movie or anywhere lese in Provence – I have been looking online but cant find info anywhere
thanks
I doubt they do them in Cucuron, I think somewhere like Aix might. There was also an outdoor cinema festival in Nice in the Roman ruins next to Matisse’s house that took place in June but I don’t know if they still do it.
I got to Cucuron, just after the fair had been. The Bassin was a bit mor mucky than in the film.
Does anyone have any locations for A Year in Provence”?
I found the baker’s in Gordes, but there were a lot of nice places I haven’t tracked down.
I went to Menerbes but couldn’r spot anything, or the house used for filming.
I must admit I’ve never seen A Year in Provence even though I have read all of Peter Mayle’s books. It wasn’t something I watched on telly when it was broadcast and the hideous reviews have put me off renting it from Love Film. Having said that, probably there are just as many hideous reviews of A Good Year so I should just ignore and watch. I heard that the TV series was filmed in nearby Bonnieux. Venasque slightly further north rings a bell too, it’s a very similar “shaped” and sized village to Menerbes.
There is a cinema in Cucuron. It is indoors, though!
My wife and I have been to Provence several times and have been to many of the villages in the gorgeous Luberon. We love it there and we love the movie, A Good Year, which we’ve seen about a half a dozen times. We just finished watching the whole movie again with the dialogue from the director and the screenwriter, which we found very enjoyable. We are going back to Provence next year and maybe we’ll stop in and see Cucuron!
I’ve watched all those extra features and commentary on the dvd, they’re great!
A Year in Provence is excellent. I like it for the places but also the characters esp as played by John Thaw.
Isle sur la Sorgue has a waterwheel. Went to Bonnieux – seemed too enclosed and hilly. The goat race is supposedly Rousillon, but it didn’t look like it. Then there is the Boule competition…
Cucuron is a wonderful village I stumbled across it a few years ago when cycling acoss from Aix to Nice, I found Provence and particularly the Var region delightful and I have recently come back from a painting trip from there. Love you blog which I have only just discovered…
Just found “Snow in Provence” (Bergerac) on You Tube. I looks like it is in Marseilles, but I saw the lake in Cucuron at the end. I feel increasingly nerdy; having been to Provence I have been looking through “A Year in Provence” to try to find the locations. There is supposed to be a (Google?) site where you can match photos to their location.I’ll keep looking….
Bergarac’s girlfriend in Provence definitely lives in the same house used in A Good Year. The fashion show scene in one of the Bergerac Provence episodes was filmed in Aix en Provence. I haven’t seen A Year in Provence though I believe it was partly filmed in Apt and Bonnieux rather than Menerbes. I too am extremely nerdy about finding places I’ve seen on telly!
We went to Aix, Apt and Bonnieux. It’s difficult to know how much they “dressed” the locations for the film – it looks really old-fashioned now; but 20 yrs ago now. I highky recommend Year in Provence if you like the area. Try to get the origional 6 hour version. You can get a 4hr version in UK, but I got mine from US (our DVD player is modified to show US DVDs.
How’s this for nerdy? I have noted each exterior and will try to take screen shots to see where they are.
This is true – you’d never recognise the etang at Curcuron from the film, it looks quite cluttered around the edge in real life and nowhere near as glam! I like how the film made it look like it was all filmed in Gordes.
As for nerdy, you’re talking to someone who dragged their husband past every wooden chalet in Gruissan to work out which was Betty & Zorg’s shack from Betty Blue.