In the summer of 2009 I travelled to Sorèze, an enchanted village in the south of France.  The purpose of the trip was to screen my documentary Journey into America at the Culture and Cultures Intercultural International film festival at the Château de Padiès, a mansion built on the site of a former castle, located in the outskirts of the village of Lempaut in the department of Tarn.

Denis Piel, an internationally acclaimed photographer who directs the film festival, was kind enough to put me up at the Abbaye Ecole in Sorèze, a hotel which is close to beautiful mountains and spotted with quaint village houses and medieval stones streets.

According to its website, the Abbey was built sometime in the 700s and was later pillaged and destroyed by the Normans in the 10th century. It was restored and enjoyed a period of prosperity. Razed to the ground in the 16th century during the Wars of Religion, in the 17th century it was rebuilt once again, affiliated to the Congregation of Saint-Maur and dedicated to “Our Lady of Peace.”

The picture of Ecole’s gate is one I snapped upon arrival in Sorèze. So peaceful!