|
|
ELLEN LORIEN AND LAURENCE CARUANA
|
MOULIN DU PEUCH
|
|
|
|
|
|
NOTES FROM MY JOURNAL:
A VISIT WITH
ELLEN LORIEN
|
Moulin du Peuch, Fleurac
June 8, 2002 (early morning)
|
Florence and I are now in Dordogne, visiting Ellen Lórien. On the journey down from Paris, our train passed through Dordogne, with its beautiful mountains, cliffs, and rolling hills with vinyards. Florence said this region is known throughout France for its Perigord cuisine, its Bergerac wine. For me, it’s the landscape that inspired Johfra and Ellen Lórien’s work for the past twenty-five years.
Since we were the only people to get off the train at Les Eyzies, Ellen had no trouble recognizing us. Driving to her house we passed some stunning cliffs with caves - le village troglodythique. This is, after all, the region with some of the most fascinating paleolithic caves - Lascaux, Grotte de la Madeleine...
Ellen’s home is amazing - an old mill (moulin) from the castle above (chateau du Peuch) transformed into their home, studios and gallery. A stream with goldfish runs under the house. There’s a Japanese garden. Another stream on the border of their property forms a beautiful waterfall with a bridge over it. Ellen showed us a tree which she had grown from a seedling brought over from Aspremont.
Taking the suitcase upstairs, I noticed and remarked upon a mandrake root (in the shape of a man) set into the corner of the stairs. Ellen said that, yes, she used that because she was a sorceress...
|
|
|
|