Moustiers From Below

A view of Moustiers-Ste-Marie, the town I lived in in southern France, as seen from immediately below the main street. Moustiers is perched on the side of a cliff and has several layers, like a wedding cake. I drew this during a brief visit back in March of 2000 to see friends I had abandoned after my painting fellowship expired in 1998. Some of the houses shown are several hundred years old, and have an elaborate system of internal metal bracing to keep the masonry from buckling outwards. The fact that the cliff is eroding out from underneath them is another problem altogether.