Lizzie Napoli illustrates Provence

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L'Isle sur la Sorgue, a city most famous for it's twice yearly antiques fairs.

While researching my last post on portraits of houses, I was reminded of a favorite illustrator, Lizzie Napoli. Her book, En Provence, is filled with charming scenes of village life and pastoral vistas throughout the south of France. I love her sketchy style with pen and ink, and restrained swashes of watercolor. She employs a wonderfully light hand, with marks and strokes that provide just enough information to delineate buildings, leafy plants and flowers, and wildlife. Her books (she has published several) are somewhat hard to get or expensive here in the US, so I thought I would share a few images.

Street scenes of St. Remy. I believe this view is not far from where we stayed at the charming b&b, La Maison du Village.

One of my favorite illustrations in the book, plants and flowers in the countryside.

Architectural details in Roussillon. Those doors - so beautiful!

Botanicals.

A view of Barbentane.
What information Lizzie chooses to leave out of her sketches is just as important as what she includes.

She lives in Paris and owns and summers in Provence in a tiny roulotte, or gypsy cart, decorated in bright colors with a curtain of beads and pale-pink scalloped awnings.


Perhaps Lizzie's roulotte is similar to these ...



Some are elegant with more traditional french interior decor ...





... while others feature a more exuberantly modern color palette with an eclectic bohemian vibe. Talk about decorating for a small space!




If you're planning a vacation in France and want to stay in a roulotte, try here.
Or, like Lizzie, why not purchase your very own here!

Images from eclectic gipsyland, Les Verdines, and Jeanne Bayol via
All Things Bright & Beautiful and Hidden in France.

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Coming soon: A shop tour of Tampa favorite, Chez Orleans, including an interview with charming shop owner Carol Timberlake. You won't want to miss her tips for antiquing in Paris!
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