Sundial of the Airelles

Val-des-Prés

The new sundial at Les Airelles serves both as a hotel sign and as a solar time display. Made by Evelyne and Norbert PEYROT, sundial makers from Névache.

Description

The sundial's motto "Obliviscere malarum, profer optima" means "Forget the bad hours, prolong the best".
It has a modern function: it serves as a sign for the hotel, while at the same time giving the local solar time.
The hour table is encased in a ribboned ring, and decorated with an acanthus-leaved thistle or carline. The lower part features the fruit that gave the establishment its name: cranberries. The upper frieze features yellow cranberries with rounded blue acanthus leaves.
Completed in 1997, the sundial was painted using the fresco technique of yesteryear. They also rendered the façade in a beautiful yellow ochre, and painted the door and window surrounds in trompe l'oeil, as well as the quoins, which simulate cut stone.