These colourful squashes, or coloquintes (pron. kolloh-kahnt), were painted at the former studio of Marc Chagall in the hilltop town of Gordes, Provence. The studio was now a guest house where we stayed for several days. The ceiling’s round beams are visible in the mirror. The yellow and red ochres used in making artists’ paints come from the nearby town of Roussillon. A friend let us stay at her house in Brittany and I gave the painting to her.