Here is another polaroid taken last week. Summer in the south of france is hot, we can barely go out in the afternoon sun. Time for a siesta in the hamac, or inside our cool house under shades.
Cleaning the garage, which have been filled up for the last 30 years, i discovered an old Polaroid Camera.
Not knowing how to use it, or if it was even working, i decided to play with it, ordered films (expensive films!) and 3 weeks later, here i am, completely addicted to this new toy.
Each picture is instant, and hm, expensive (a 8 pictures film is 18 Euros, that makes 2 Euros per picture!), and you have little control on how the result will be. However, the results are precious, romantic, spontaneous little slice of life, which you can hold onto, and i just love it.
A few snapshots of the last weeks. We are now settled in our new house in Mérindol, near Aix en Provence, south of France. Spring is already leaving the stage to a nice summer, and we can barely realize that we are here, we made it happen, considering where we where at that time last summer, and the summer before. Whew! We can *really* make anything we want happen, that’s what we hear in our heart each morning walking around our 3000 sm ground with about 100 olive trees, our hamac, our 2 cats and our swimming pool.
We went through a lot, but nothing felt heavy – that is a major learning for me, to move through lots of changes, and keep calm and carry on!
Pictures are worth a thousand words, so here are a few.
Chris with his mom, last summer, austria.
I am experiencing a new level of love and communication with life, with nature. I love every day of it.
I hope we can soon find a nice house, a new nest, comfortable and bright, joyful and calm, surrounded by trees, mountain views, and my little growing farm (2 cats and more coming…!)
Again, there would be so much i could share here, but since i dont plan to live over an hundred years old, there are always choices i must make about how to spend my days: sitting in front of this screen, or be with the trees.
I let you guess which of these 2 options i cherish most.
I’m still here, this is still happening. I dont know if i have just been silent on this blog, or just totally absent. There would be so much to write about, so many observations, ideas, new views on life – that just the thought of having to write it all makes me feel exhausted! Right now, i just had to post this picture of me and my mom, taken last september on their first visit in europe, i think it speaks a lot about our time together.
Autumn is there for
- hot yogi tea
- outside walks on warm and some chilly days
- crochet projects getting started
- movie nights
- and this little new sticks project witch i find really wonderful!
Hope you are having a nice start with october!
Paris, so beautiful under the rainbow yesterday evening!
Time for us to decide if we stay or leave. I dont really want to leave, now that i feel at home in the city of light, but at the same time, i crave for a comfortable and spacious home, and long walks at the sea and in the mountains. Staying in Paris would delay again my project of living on the country side, project which i feel both excited and afraid about. Another time of decisions and changes, movement and all that comes with. Another leap, another way for me to tell the Universe, “I trust your plans for me – please dont let me down!”.
C’est maintenant chose faite, je me joins à l’agence Parisienne d’illustration Marie & Nous!
. i’d love to compile a list of all the things i’d like to buy: an iphone, an ibook, a new moop bag, books, and a 15 days holiday at the sea with C.
. i’d love to do a list of 100 things i love about Paris
. i’d love to let you know about the hard time and struggles related with my back and knee recovery, and all the emotions and lessons i am going through
. i’d love to share about how much i care about discovering who i really am, and where i got lost
. how much i wish my anxiety would be exchanged by humor, laughter and play!
Happy friday!
“Our culture invariably supposes that action and accomplishment is better than rest, that doing something–anything–is better than doing nothing. Because of our desire to succeed, to meet these ever-growing expectations, we do not rest. Because we do not rest, we lose our way. We miss the compass points that would show us where to go, we bypass the nourishment that would give us succor. We miss the quiet that would give us wisdom. We miss the joy and love born of effortless delight. Poisoned by this hypnotic belief that good things come only through unceasing determination and tireless effort, we can never truly rest. And for want of rest, our lives are in danger.”
From Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives, via.
Today i took 3 walks, 2 short strolls, and just now, a wonderful 30 minutes walk. This might sound ordinary, but walking is nothing ordinary when you had to stop doing it, and hardly re-learned this simple gesture.
I hurted my knee during our last holiday, and today, almost 4 weeks later, i was able to walk freely and safely again. Walking feels magical — such a basic and grounding movement — allowing us so much freedom.
After watching (and learning to keep faith in) the process involved in healing my knee, i feel more confident in my body’s ability to heal himself — maybe this step was needed on my way to heal my back pain.
These last 4 weeks, confined home and unable to walk, were spent reading the memoirs of Gertrude Stein and Simone de Beauvoir. I could not think of a better place to be reading these books: in our flat, on the 6th floor of the rue Froidevaux, with a beautiful sky view over the Montparnasse cemetery and one of Simone de Beauvoir’s appartement.
In my despair and frustration, i felt grateful to have found these books at this moment of my life, for the universe to allow me another way to freely travel trough this city, it’s history and it’s great spirits.
It is a pure synchronicity that we found ourselves here, we had no idea about this area of Paris, and it’s history, before moving in. Back in march when we arrived, walking boulevard Raspail was nothing exotic, but then, after reading these 2 memoirs, my walk on Raspail today took a completely new twist: my view of this boulevard, the people who have lived here (SDB, Picasso, ..), the historical events that have taken place, it’s bars and coffees that hosted and inspired so many — all this scenery is totally taking me, and talking to me.
That is how i feel about our time in Paris.
March was cold and gray, we just arrived, exhausted after weeks of preparation, and i felt deeply tired, cold and homesick. April and May were time for us to go trough the loss of our little lilo. June started, we left for a much needed time off in nature, which was beautiful, and yet another drama, i felt on the rocks and my knee will need 2 to 3 weeks to recover.
From my window it feels like Paris is a city i ought to visit, some day.
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