Artists' and craftsmen's pieces
The Villages and Valleys d'Azur are brimming with creative souls. If you'd like to take home some beautiful souvenirs, you can tour the galleries and artists' studios in search of a painting or object that will touch you. You can also visit the designer boutiques, where you'll find a bevy of locally-made wonders. Talented artisans offer a variety of techniques and worlds: ceramics, sewing, jewelry... Guillaume Dubosq's boutique workshop in Tourrettes-sur-Loup, for example, offers objects crafted from olive wood.
Blown glass
You have to see a glassmaker at work to grasp the magic and delicacy of his gestures, a kind of initiation dance with fire, cane and molten glass, leading to the creation of a work of art. Watching glassmakers at work, one has the impression of great ease, yet it takes ten years of apprenticeship to completely master this technique. In her gallery in Valbonne, Ada Loumani presents her magnificent vases. There's also an art glassworks on the main street in the village of Gourdon.
Pottery
Provence has a long tradition of pottery and ceramics. Potters can still be found in our villages, and we invite you to push open their doors in Gourdon, Tourrettes-sur-Loup, Valbonne or Le Bar-sur-Loup. You'll see them bent over their wheel, with the ancestral gesture of joining hands to give shape to a paste made of earth and water. Out of their workshops come beautifully decorated plates, bowls and candleholders. Sometimes even a curious hedgehog carrying grass on its back, as at the poterie de la bergerie, in Tourrettes-sur-Loup. Cicadas, lizards, vases and other decorative ceramic objects are also on sale at poterie de Gourdon.
Perfumes, scented waters and candles
Close to the world capital of perfume, Grasse, the Villages and Valleys d'Azur are home to a wide range of fragrances, produced by various methods of extracting natural odorants, such as distillation or enfleurage, mainly used for so-called fragile flowers like jasmine or orange blossom. In the land of scents, what could be more natural than scented candles? Numerous artisanal factories offer them. Such is the case of La Bastide des Arômes, in Gourdon, which also sells scented soaps.
For gourmets
Here, local produce is king. Livestock products, cheeses from La ferme des clapiers in Bézaudun-les-Alpes, olive oil and pasta from L'Oli D'aqui in Le Rouret... A 100% local aperitif! Accompanied in moderation by Bacho Brewery and Domaine des Claus wines from Tourrettes-sur-Loup. For those with a sweet tooth, there's honey from Ruchers de Cipières, delicacies from master pastry chef and chocolatier Camprini in Valbonne, and a local must: Confiserie Florian in Pont du Loup. Here you can sample specialties such as crystallized flowers.
