bright tiles

For reasons that I won't bore you with, I had no water yesterday and was reduced to washing my hair in warmed up Evian (which I suppose feels vaguely Diana Vreeland-esque). But at least one aspect of the current round of renovations has gone according to plan: the handpainted Provencal tiles, which have just been put in place above the kitchen sink.

I first saw these tiles by Carocim (www.carocim.fr) at the hotel Mirande in Avignon, where they have been used to stunning effect on the bathroom floors. I subsequently made a special trip to the showroom in Aix-en-Provence to pick up a catalogue, from which I chose my clashing mélange. (Happily, Carocim takes orders by phone and will deliver across France.) Probably Sarah Beeney would have a few tart words to say about the eye-popping patchwork of tiles - and I can imagine future owners of my house laughing at my bad taste - but I am really pleased with the effect.