An American in Provence

Lançon-de-Provence is a small town about 30 minutes north west of Marseille. Lancoun De Prouvenco in the old Provencal language. It is very cute, my idea of what a perfect Provençcal village should be like. I am sure there are nicer ones, but not "real" ones. It also happens to be where Alain's parents live, where he grew up, and where we will be getting married.
http://www.provenceweb.fr/e/bouches/lancon/lancon.htm
The website states that there are 6,786 inhabitants. There is a small church, where we will be getting married, plus another small chapel. Correction, where the marriage blessing will take place. You can only get "married" one place, and that is the city hall.
The surrounding countryside has olive trees and grape vines. Alain's parents have a fig tree, a cherry tree, and two olive trees. One thing that I love about the french language is the names for the trees- le olivier, le figiuer, and le cerisier. All of the houses are built out of brown sandstone? rocks? and the shutters are painted bright colors, blues, purples, pinks, reds, browns. There are several boulangeries (bakeries, required, I really do believe it is a law stating for X numbers of inhabitants you have to have Y number of bakeries), pizza places, coiffures, war memorials, and so on. Many of the streets are cobblestoned and narrow. You can walk everywhere in the village.

There are the ruins of a chateau from the 17th century, the Lords of Baux. It is now split up into many little houses, built into the walls. Unfortunately, the area is becoming expensive, beh oui.