To arrive at Domaine Chantecler, the Aix-en-Provence estate of beauty luminary Frédéric Fekkai and his wife, Shirin von Wulffen, is to be transported to a more peaceable, bountiful realm. The drive, leading to an entry court with hand-cut stone pillars, is bordered by cypresses, olive trees, and lavender bushes. Off to one side is an olive orchard underplanted with more lavender, whose blooms infuse the property all summer with their sweet, smoky scent. “As soon as you get here,” Fekkai says, “your shoulders come down two centimeters. It is a paradise.”
On a lovely fall day, the olive harvest is under way, and Dominique, the caretaker, and his team are climbing the gnarled trees, shaking the green olives into nets laid on the grass. The same ritual can be seen…
