It was at the potters' fair that we met the potter at Le Cailar. Or should I say the pottery family? They are 3, the mother who came down from Alsace 35 some years ago, her daughter Veronique, and her daughter's husband who easily adapted from a life as a shoemaker to a potter... one manual passion to another.

Le Cailar is a small village in the Gard, on the West side of the Rhône just beyond St. Gilles and before Lunel. It is known more for its devotion to the toro of the Camargue (that portion of the Gard is known as the little Camargue) than for its pottery, but perhaps that will change? When you enter Le Cailar, the potter's shop is well marked, on the right side of the street as you enter, just across from the elementary school.

When we go to visit we are invited back into the potting room, where they throw the pots on the wheel and form other dishes in molds. They then apply colored liquid clay to the semi-dry dishes with what they call a "poire", similar to the rubber suction tools used to clean out ears. The clay is colored with metal oxides, iron, copper, manganese, cobalt, and the resulting dishes are the colors of Provence. It is usually Veronique who shows us about, though we are greeted with smiles and graciousness by the whole family (even their new son, Simon), to see the studio, the kiln, the dishes waiting to be fired, the dishes just fired, the dishes once glazed and finished.