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Click
here to go to the home page of Casas de Lorenzo
in Montefrio, a white village of Andalucia, Spain. Lorenzo
writes on Andalucian culture and history, the Spanish Moors, Andalucian
cooking, tapas and jamón serrano! He also handles holiday
lets and villa rentals.
Visit Lorenzo's website relating
his travels in France and richly illustrated with his own photographs.
The site includes Lorenzo's pen-and-ink postcards of Paris and Provence. Click
on
www.french-places.com
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...back in 1961,
when we were young!
Recently, my boyhood friend
Anthony Naro, who now lives in Rio de Janeiro, came across some old
photos of us. They were taken in the
summer of 1961 when I was living in Montefrio with the German
painter Lilo Wagner. I was 19, she was 24, and Anthony was a
very precocious 18. The camera was a Zeiss Ikon box
model which my father bought at a trade fair in Berlin before World
War II, and gave to me when I was 13. I lost my own
copies and negatives, but Anthony kept the ones I sent him at the
end of the summer. They have provided some precious - and amusing -
photographic proof of the years when we discovered that remote
corner of Andalucia.
On a hike in the country, we gorged on
fresh figs
I am striking a theatrical pose,
as usual, while Anthony concentrates on eating, as usual.
Although he was brought up in the Italian section of
Greenwich Village, he had never seen a fresh fig before - he
thought they were only eaten dried! In the background,
Sierra de Parapanda.
We visited a family of
farmers, who had built a shepherd's hut. Sitting on
the ground behind Anthony and me is Manolo Avila, the singer.
More eating is going on, but of what I do not know!
Possibly chorizo... The little girl must be a
village "abuela" now, with her own grandchildren.
Pedro, the farmer
Manolo is making a bread, olive oil and tomato sandwich
- "un canto de pan y aceite, con tomate"
and slicing a fresh melon. He had a
herd of goats and sheep which Pedro was caring for, that summer
I quench my thirst with water pulled up from a nearby well.
Behind me, Anthony and Manolo
Lilo, "the rebel". This was
taken in the Moorish-style tower on the roof of our house in Montefrio
in the gypsy quarter, El Coro
Village gentlemen playing cards in El Café Español.
visit the Casas
de Lorenzo in Montefrio
Apricot Tree House
Casa de la Roca
Casa de la Parra
Casa de las
Piedras