Le Fruit Chateau Painting

In August, after months of staying at home because of the coronavirus outbreak, we really needed a vacation. Under different circumstances, we probably would have flown somewhere, but this year, we figured going on vacation within driving distance was a better idea. After a bit of hunting around Airbnb, we found a lovely, 200 year old farm house in the French countryside. It looked great on the pictures, with what looked like a nice big garden around it. When we got there, we were surprised at how big the garden was -- more like a park, really! We learned from the owners that it was once a vineyard, but apparently the quality of the wine in this part of France wasn't that great, so they stopped growing it. Now part of the land is given over to fruit trees: apples, pears, plums and a special fruit called “golden apple” or yellow mombin. We stayed there in the midst of a heatwave, with temperatures hitting 39C during the day, the pond in the garden had almost dried up, and the grass was yellowing. During the day, we were getting barbecued, but in the evening, when it cooled down a little, we went on walks through the fields around the farmhouse, and then returned to sit in lounge chairs and watch the swallows perform a ballet (they were really just hunting insects, I think). I hope you get a bit of a feeling for our time in France from this painting. I didn’t paint the swallows, I figured I should leave something to the imagination!