Anne & Kirk Woodyard – Music and Markets Tours

While strolling through a village in France I glanced up  – who was that looking out the window above? She doesn’t look too happy to see me!
Further on, this miss looks ready to dip her jar into the lavoir (wash-basin) below. Guess she’d rather wash her delicate items at home!
I’ve long been fascinated by trompe l’oeil – a French term meaning to “trick the eye”, and love tracking down examples of this free-to-enjoy art, appearing three-dimensional although painted on a flat surface, as we travel. Sometimes it’s a playful figure, or a complete scene painted on a blank and formerly-boring wall,

other times it’s architectural detail, faking a window to match others, or embellishing a plain one.This fascinating “tricky business” has been around for centuries. The wall decor of Palladian Villa Emo, constructed in the mid 1500s, fooled our eyes with realistic cracks in the beautiful architectural details. A favorite lakeside village of ours, Orta San Giulio (on Lake Orta northwest of Milan) is dotted with frescoes dating from the Middle Ages. This men’s social club in Sorrento boasts a beautiful backdrop under the arches.There are a few prime examples in our own town of Aix en Provence – a marvelous stairway painted in the 1600s, and a recent surprise on a simple wall that we walk by nearly every day.The most popular door in the ochre-hued village of Roussillon showcases a gorgeous scene. While driving through the backroads of the Languedoc with a carful of young friends, we paused in the village of Capestang, and our models enjoyed posing in this engaging spot.The town of Beziers, also in the Languedoc recalls previous residents and events with their trompe l’oeuil wall art.We’re currently in the delightful region of Alsace, in France, discovering one colorful village after another, where several eye-catching examples of this art enliven our strolls. Can you tell which details are real on this house? It was a challenge!
Here are a few more of my favorites – playful and whimsical additions just to delight our eyes! Do you have any to share?

The best way to describe us (Kirk and Anne Woodyard) is that we’re interested in the stories that make the places we visit come alive. We’ve visited Europe more times than we can count, learned some entertaining stories there, and met some warm and helpful people who also enjoy the wonders of music and life in Europe. We look forward to sharing these stories and friends and experiences with our Music and Markets guests. Since 2003 we’ve hosted Music and Markets tours in France, Italy, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, England and Spain, and in 2019 added Wonder Tours with a more intentional concentration on art and architecture, local culture, food and wine, and less time dedicated to concert-going.We also design and host custom private tours – previous locations include many French, Spanish, British and Italian regions. Between our music-related travels, we enjoy our home in the south of France. While both of us have experience in organizing travel and music groups, Kirk’s background is in project management and competitive writing, and Anne is an accomplished pianist with over forty years of teaching and performance experience. Slow Travel Tours is an affiliation of small-group tour operators who offer personalized trips in Italy, France and other European countries.