What does a ceramics enthusiast look for in southern France? As a child in a candy factory. Just one problem. There is so much ceramics in the south of France that you can’t possibly see everything at once.

When I think of ceramics in the South of France, I smell the lavender mixed with goat cheese. Then I see green hills where rivers splash through the landscape. From a corner of my eye, a salamander shoots away, warming up to the sun’s rays shooting through the canopy. And just below it … lies gold. Black or white, it is for the taking or actually for excavation.

This is also the region where 500 years ago Bernard Palissy (1510-1590) grew up. The landscape he walked through looking for work. He didn’t only found work, he was also inspired by it. He went looking for his “Recepte Véritable“, the true recipe of the earth, ceramics, glazes and the rest of life.

I am always looking for the true recipe, so this summer I went to the country of Palissy with my girlfriend. … With in my pocket “an artist’s travel guide to the Ceramics Museums of Europe” (Don’t leave home without it).

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