Madame Sévigné was Being Modest...
From time to time, we like to select a city or town on the map…and go have a look. We’re not necessarily looking for big ‘sights,’ it’s more of an explore.
And one day, we went to Grignan.
Grignan is located in the Drôme, a rarely-visted part of Southern France. And that is a shame, because the Drôme (the province just north of the more heavily visited Vaucluse) is one of those unexplored, usually passed-over parts of this wonderful country that is definitely worth exploring.
The homes in the region make a subtle deviation away from the traditional architectural style found further south. They seem more orderly somehow. More formal.
PerhapsThat’s the Mont Ventoux in the image above, by the way. The fabled mountain delineates the southern border of this province that seems to be dedicated to the color green.
The main crops grown in the area are…no surprise, given the image above…lavender, wine grapes, wheat, and sunflowers. All this makes the area as picturesque as can be.
Grignan has a large castle and imposing church atop the mount it is built upon. But the town is best known for being the place from where Madame de Sévigné wrote her famous letters in the 1600s.
Madame de Sévigné (her full name was a mouthful: Marie de Rabutan-Chantal, the marquise de Sévigné) was a French aristocrat who is considered tome be an icon of 17th century French literature.
Her letters speak of the age they were written in, and her accounts are full of witty and insightful observations.
Among them are:
• “True friendship is never serene.”
• “There is no person who is not dangerous for someone.”
• “I fear nothing so much as a man who is witty all day long.”
And I love this one: “When I step into this library, I cannot understand why I ever step out of it.”
Grignan has a quiet little square, which was basically deserted on the weekday when we arrived. (It’s just up from the town’s impressive lavoir.)
This is a wonderful place to order a drink and sit down for a while.
Madame de Sévigné, who knew a thing or two about the good life, would want you to. She said that Grignan had an especially pretty view. But in this, she was being modest. It’s beautiful.
It doesn’t take long before you become aware of the roses in bloom all around you. That’s not just happenstance, because Grignan has officially been recognized as one of the “Botanical Villages of the Drôme.
Eventually, you will reach the uppermost part of Grignan, where you can take in the view of the church and castle, and especially, that of the countryside that unfolds far and wide all around you.
Grignan. 17th century letters. A castle and church, beautiful lavoir, public rose garden, festivals in July nto be missed, and crooked streets that invite wandering.
