The Clock Tower of Fayence was built on a prominent rock at the apex of the village. Proudly erected in 1908 (as displayed on the side), the tower is one of the main attractions in the village. Tourists would walk up the hill past Christine’s flat/apartment on their way to take in the panoramic view. The tower, along with its loud and sonorous bell, could be seen from one of the windows in her living room. However, this scene is taken from one street further over, so that it includes the picturesque steps up to the lookout at the base of the tower.

The actual clock face is at right angles to this view and looks out over the village. The clock is hardly needed as the bell announces the time on the quarter hour. If you miss counting the number of hours on the hour, just wait and listen to the bell in the church tower chime exactly two minutes later. Apparently, the municipality and the church could never agree on the same absolute time and fortunately, being Provence, it didn’t matter as nobody was too concerned about time: with the one exception of all the shops closing at noon so that everyone could go for a nice long lunch and siesta before opening again at three.

This particular painting was given to my father, Benny, who then passed it on to me. This is another in a series where Christine had painted with tremendous attention to detail, unlike many of her other landscapes where she used the much freer technique of her typical line and wash style paintings. Interestingly, the lovely cloud effect is achieved by using an irregular natural sponge to lift off the blue color of the sky and partly reveal the white of the paper below.