found at the pottery fair

I had been looking -- for a long time now -- for "that special tea cup" specifically for Japanese tea.

I found three this weekend.

I puchased them at Les Tupiniers du Vieux Lyon, a pottery fair held every year in September at place Saint Jean. I love the ethereal quality of these two porcelain cups as well as their celadon color. The combination of those two elements, executed with Japanese sensibility (or at least that's how I perceived it), had a very strong appeal to me. I coldn't decide between the two, so I got them both.

They are from an atelier in the commune of Montauban-sur-l'Ouvèze, in the south of France.

The third one, this one is a charmer. I had already bought two and wasn't looking for another one, but it found me. So decidedly different from the other two, it has a wonderfully earthy feel that I love. This cup will be perfect for a more robust tea, like hoji-cha.

It's from an atelier in Caromb, which is not too far from where the other two cups were made. Is this coincidence, or is the soil really good in that particular region?