Rufford and beyond

 It's quite a few weeks since Rufford but here are just a few pictures of the stands near mine. Anna Mercedes Wear's stand was opposite mine.

 David Wright was next to me and below is Richard Heeley's stand for which he won the award for the best stand.
When we were at Rufford three years ago we met Jack Blackburn who has a stall called Pots from France.
I was really struck by a plate by a French potter who I had never heard of before named Jean Nicholas Gerard. I bought the plate and determined that I would visit his pottery one day.
Not having done much travelling I didn't really know what this would entail.

 When I looked up Jean Nicholas Gerard on the inter-net I also came across two other slipware potters. So why not visit them as well?  Our first stop was at Poterie de Sampigny the home of Sylvie and Francois Fresnais. Unfortunately they were away but we enjoyed looking at their wonderful pots. There is a video of their pottery which is well worth watching.

 I have no sense of direction but Mark had the map and I had the steering wheel so we travelled through olive groves..

 around magnificent lakes..

 alongside lavender fields

 onto Valensole and the pottery of Jean Nicholas Gerard. I was so determined to see the pottery that I hardly even remembered to take any photographs. We stayed at Jean Nicholas's gite so we were able to enjoy all his beautiful pots and handle them as his gite was equipped with every sort of pot. You can see a video of Jean Nicholas Gerard here.