{"id":48115,"date":"2021-02-26T12:56:31","date_gmt":"2021-02-26T12:56:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.museum-aarschot.be\/xxv-lavendula\/"},"modified":"2021-02-26T12:56:31","modified_gmt":"2021-02-26T12:56:31","slug":"xxv-lavendula","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.museum-aarschot.be\/en\/xxv-lavendula\/","title":{"rendered":"XXV Lavendula"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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<< XXIV Dieu est un fumeur de Havanes<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To France. Buy a property! A farm in Provence! You only live once!<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Rev. Van Oeckel teaches French at the Sint-Jozefscollege. He made a vow to become a priest if he survived the war. The Reverend is a bon vivant with a country house in Castellane, where he helps a farmer with money and drink problems to find a buyer for his estate. That is how Frie and his brother Jos end up in the capital of lavender. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Domaine Le Plantier, circa 1972<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1963 Frie and Jos buy the building in the distance in the photo. A real postcard landscape. ‘Le plantier’ near old Digne, at the foot of the Alps. The region is known for its many fields full of lavender. Quite a few families from Aarschot and surroundings came on holiday there from the early 1960s until the 1990s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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the little boy at front left is Pieter, the blonde girl waving is Ilse, Frie with Gert<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mia (34) and the children enjoy the summer holiday<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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the window of Pieter’s bedroom is open<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Pieter<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Gert, Frie, Pieter and Ilse <\/strong>(photo: 1973)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Frie, people who live in the South lead a double life. Langdorp he calls “the damp wood”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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But why does Victor Hugo begin his novel ‘Les Mis\u00e9rables’ in Digne?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The writer begins to take an interest in the bishop of Digne, Fran\u00e7ois de Miollis, reputed to be good and generous, who will become his model for Monseigneur Myriel in the novel ‘Les Mis\u00e9rables’. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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‘Blissful feeling’ <\/strong>Frie is a man who can only keep turning by continuing to turn. But perhaps he also does so because he is afraid that his machine will not start up again once it has been stopped? He takes his family to Digne for two months. He himself returns to the notary’s office after a few days of recharging his batteries. The previous owner of ‘Le plantier’ calls by regularly to catch pigeons from the pigeonnier (dovecote), whose necks he wrings on the spot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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