Abbey of Senaque

Dear Family and Friends,

The weather has gotten quite hot in Provence and the segals (cicadas) are chirping away in the trees around our house. The kids have been out of school for a couple weeks now and are enjoying their well-deserved break. With the extra time, Nathaniel is taking tennis lessons and Elyse and Nicolas are busy learning how to sail at the local lake. They both can now explain the different parts of a sailboat (in French of course) and can sail unaccompanied.




On Saturday, we decided to take a relatively short drive into the Luberon Valley to visit the abbey of Senanque. The 12th century abbey is surrounded by fields of lavender that make this a very picturesque setting. While the inside of the church is very bare, even by monastic standards, the simplicity of the exterior and the bell tower blend well into the rugged surroundings.



As we were walking around the abbey (and in fact while I was taking this picture), the church bells started to ring. Because of the echo from the surrounding walls and canyon, Nathaniel thought that the sound was coming from under the ground. Of course, Nicolas and Elyse thought that this was the funniest thing in the world and proceeded to try and correct Nathaniel. However, Nathaniel stood firm in his belief until well into our drive home.



Keeping cool is a difficult job. Although our home is equipped with air conditioning through our radiators, the cold water running through the pipes combined with the humidity in the air result in pools of water from condensation. Since Julie doesn't like using all of the towels to clean up the mess, we usually resort to our second option, a dip in the pool and a game of battleships and submarines.

We hope and you are all doing well and that we'll see you sometime soon!

Joe, Julie, Nicolas, Elyse, and Nathaniel