1 May-13 June: Frank Perls Gallery, Beverly Hills, exhibits "Alexander Calder: Mobiles," previously shown at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 22 March-19 April. (CF, exhibition file)

30 June: The Calder family arrives at Le Havre after an eight-day voyage on the Flandre. Also on board is Ernest Hemingway. "He appeared suddenly and I presented myself, but it was not much use. For I had nothing to say to him and he had nothing to say to me. And that went for Louisa too." (Calder 1966, 213)

July: The Calders arrive in the hamlet of Les Granettes in Aix-en-Provence. Their house, the Mas des Roches, has little water and no electricity. Calder uses the carriage shed as his studio, where he works on gouaches. At a blacksmith shop nearby, he makes a series of large standing mobiles conceived for the outdoors. (Calder 1966, 214)

August: The Calders happen upon Jean Davidson, their future son-in-law, in the Loire valley. Jean has purchased a mill house "Moulin Vert," in the tiny town of Sache. (Calder 1966, 219-220; CF, Calder to mother, 9 August)

Summer: Daughter Sandra goes to live in Paris.

30 September: Calder receives a commission for a mobile from Middle East Airlines for their Beirut ticket office. (CF, Salaam to Calder, 30 September)

November: Back in Aix-en-Provence, the Calders find another house nearby, "Malvalat," which has running water and electricity. Calder sets up a studio on the third floor and continues to concentrate on gouaches. (Calder 1966, 218; MoMA, Calder to Valentin, 2 November)

7 November: Calder leaves Aix for Paris to begin filming Cirque de Calder, directed by Jean Painleve, with Andre Bac as cameraman. (CF, Calder to mother and the Sterns, 16 November)

11 November: The Calders visit Jean Davidson to see his renovated mill house in Sache. Calder agrees to a trade of three mobiles for "Francois Premier," a dilapidated seventeenth-century stone house built adjoining a cliff on Jean's property. (Calder, 1966, 220-221)

Mid-November: Calder rigs a studio in Jean's mill and constructs the mobiles. Through the winter, Jean organizes the renovation of Francois Premier and converts the wagon shed into a studio. A second small building across the street serves as the "gouacherie," a painting studio. (Calder 1966, 219-220; CF, Calder to mother and the Sterns, 16 November)