Soar-Dream-France

Flowering in France

In addition to being a family that "celebrates"-my family is also a family of stuff-or in Mom's words: "collectibles"!  Don't get me wrong, Mom has some incredible collectibles that I'm sure are worth quite a lot of money.  And then there's...well I'm sure you know the rest of that story.  Having my purple truck "Willie Nelson", I was frequently the beneficiary of many of Mom and Dad's collectibles that Willie and I hauled from St. Louis to New Orleans regularly.  One trip, we were loaded down with beautiful china planters.  We had: two Virgin Marys (which for non-Catholics made me chuckle); a stable of tiny animals that I remembered from my childhood-dogs, cats, pigs; a soldier; swans; china houses; china churches; many china pots and bowls in a variety of sizes and colors; and then there was my smirking, gazing to the sky, china lady in the hat that you see in the photo.  Every hurricane threat and/or evacuation order, all my china garden treasures came in to be stored in the laundry room so as not to become catapulting dangers! Before I left in '05, I had put everything in the laundry room so that was one less thing that my Ms. Williams of More had to worry about...just in case. 

Imagine how much our china garden pals cheered us up when we came back to the devastation.  My lady went back out on the crumbling fence and really had something to smirk about.  Some sat on fallen cinder-blocks and others were able to go back to their homes before the storm.  Although my Mom loved her china planters, they were not on her list to return to St. Louis with me when I closed Columbus Street down that November of 2006.  All of them live with friends and others in New Orleans now, except my smirking china lady who has come to France with me.  Unlike Noah, who could take 2 of each with him on the ark...I only allowed myself one (or so) transitional object per category.  If you look closely at the tip of my lady's hat, you'll see a tiny piece that broke off when she was voyaging through the mail.  She now has a place of honor in the sunshine on a supporting beam at the edge the terrasse roof.  I don't have to bring her inside anymore, but from time to time it looks to me like she's looking over her shoulder to her old friends and our old life that used to be New Orleans-Kind of like me!

Last year's place for geraniums in plastic is this year's place for pansies in pitchers and pots.  I'll share our smiling pansies with you tomorrow.

SOARing to Success in the Lot

Leasing the house and apartment in New Orleans offers one income stream, but I also write grants, training curriculums, e-zine and newsletter articles, am available for consultation and offer workshops here at the Chatette and back in the states from time to time.  I began offering a 3-day Supervision, Ethics and Cultural Diversity Workshop here at the Chatette in 2005 which was based on a workshop I had developed for the Louisiana Association of Clinical Social Workers. During 2009, I have three workshops that I'll be offering at the Chatette on a weekly basis.  Two are pending RENEWAL by the National Association of Social Workers (NASW-Provider #886431617) for 21 continuing education contact hours including 4 in ethics:

• Revisiting Our Commitment to Supervision, Ethics and Diversity-Offered Every Monday Morning to Wednesday Noon From June 1 to September 30, 2009

• Grief and Trauma: Healing and Recovery Through Metaphor-Offered Every Wednesday at 1pm to Friday Evening From June 3 to October 2, 2009

The third workshop is NEW and pending APPROVAL from the NASW for the same amount of contact hours and ethics:

• Writing to SOAR: Journaling to Client Success-Offered Every Friday at 1pm to Sunday Evening From June 5 to October 4, 2009

The 3-day workshop fee is $500/person and includes 21 hours of CEU certificates, workshop materials, 3 continental breakfasts, 3 lunches and daily refreshments.  If you're interested in learning more about the workshops, travel here and accomodations: drop me a note at [email protected]. 

Today's photo is a shot of control central-imagine working as you look out three windows that size to the Lot River!

 

A Bientôt Y'All!

Growing up in St. Louis gave me that mid-western accent that is taught to radio personalities...not very interesting but something they believe everyone in the states can understand. Maybe that's why I loved the end of "The Beverly Hillbillies" so much when the Clampetts came out waving good by on the front porch of their mansion and said: "Y'all come back now, y'hear!" It sure sounded like a foreign language to me! I gave up my uninteresting "you guys" and acquired my very own "y'all" when I moved to New Orleans. I really drawled after a red wine or two!  Embarrassingly, I found myself saying things like "a bientôt, y'all and au revoir, y'all" during my early days in France.  I also found that I tried to give my French a southern accent after a red wine or two.  Putting a drawl on "je" turns it into something in the past-so drawling en Français can be dangerous!  Last Monday our language teacher announced in class that he thought I was losing my accent.  The rest of the class agreed-but then said maybe they were just getting used to it. (They mostly hear English-English spoken here!)  I didn't think too much more about it, until my Lafayette friends said: "Where's your y'all Laury? We promise you'll have it back after 24 hours with us!" It gave me pause...the second time in less than a week that my "y'all" was noticed to be missing. 

I wonder where our accents go.  I know I don't say "you guys" anymore, even when I'm in St. Louis. I confess that my "y'all" has been tamed in France, but once more after a wine or a pastis that "y'all" just falls out all over the place when I'm leaving the fêtes on my way to the Chatette.  Everybody humors me.  Some even tell me that it's "charmant" and that always makes me smile.  I realize that whenever I left friends or parties in New Orleans, I'd always say: "See y'all!" And now, it's carried over to my life in France. I like that my neighbors think it's charming and are able to laugh with me!  It makes me smile to know that they accept me just as I am-even if I am a little different and that crazy American from time to time.  I think that this "y'all" is here to stay!

The top photo is the Chatette and the Chateau reflecting in the Lot River taken from the other side in Saujac-which is in the Aveyron Department.  My friends and I met this St. Cirq Lapopie pooch on our visit.  I couldn't resist...Looks like an "A Bientôt Y'All" to me!

  

Good New Friends-Good Food-Good Times

How do you do the Lot Valley justice in just one day?  Fran, Toni and I set off in the rental car thinking we would do St. Cirq Lapopie, lunch in the middle somewhere and then try to add in yet another department by going to Conques.  (Jean very gently said that she thought we were being way too ambitious by trying to squeeze in the Belgian Cross, and might never make it to dinner at her house later that evening for 7pm.)  I began re-evaluating the day, once I saw my visitors attempt every photo opportunity between Cajarc and Tour de Faure-sometimes stopping-sometimes rolling.  (It was those shots while the driver was driving and shooting that made me just a little nervous.) Stopping in to see Isabelle at the patisserie in Tour de Faure for a "must have" bagette and pastry paper-Conques was off the list, lunch in St. Cirq Lapopie was on, and then I thought a drive by of Chateau Cenevieres, visit to Calvignac, and a pass along the river in Saujac in the Aveyron were doable. 

We parked at the parking lot at the top of the St. Cirq Lapopie and walked down along the outskirts to the Porte de Rocamadour and then worked our way back up through the village.  Off-season is wonderful-the silence-the feel of ancient times-sharing the awe of your friends for the place you love that pulled you to the Lot...and not stepping over the 100,000 or so other tourists that show up in August. We were looking for something light for lunch and ended up at the restaurant Lou Bolat where we each had the warm cabecou cheese salad with walnuts and raspberry dressing. We were the first ones in and almost the last ones out. 

And light, we didn't do a very good job of sticking to that.  We did rationalize this crepe with vanilla ice cream, cassis and chantilly, by splitting it between the three of us. We left very happy women and decided that we would take a drive to the beginning of the tow path and walk in part of the way, since we wouldn't have time for even the abbreviated hike.  My re-evaluated goal for the rest of the afternoon was met with time to spare.  Leaving the tow path I thought: The next pretty day I'm going to make that long hike on my own and have my picnic up there on the look-out!  Hopefully, that's a day I'll be able to share with you soon!

Trio of Old Friends

This is the first time I've ever had neighbors who are close, but not easily reachable because there is a natural barrier between us...the Lot River.  I can't walk up the hill for a coffee or an apero, but from time to time I can hear their conversations (in French of course) perfectly clearly from the other side of the river.  I took my visitors-Fran Clarke and Toni Daigre-to that Saujac side of the river with me yesterday.  The view of our side of the river is incredible.  It was also just the right time of day to get those "Monet-ish" reflections in the river with intense, profound color.  Turning around from my Monet moments I smiled, I had discovered my three old friends sitting beside an irrigation pump.  I met them for the first time a few years ago and fell in love with their strength, color, utility, spring sweetness and charm...just like my new Louisiana friends.   I'll be riding into Cahors with them this morning to make sure that their rental car gets turned in and they make that 12:46 train to Paris.  Me, I'll be on the 12:40 bus coming home hoping that sometime in the not too distant future I'll be able to turn around and see my new "old friends" pulling into the drive of the Chatette.  It's nice not to be the "lone crazy American" from time to time!  Yesterday, we were three!

Tow Pathing Between St. Cirq Lapopie and Bouziès

For me, one of the prettiest  hikes on the Lot has to be starting at the base of St. Cirq Lapopie and winding your way to Bouziès all along the Lot.  You pass mills , locks, farms, and many amazing photo opportunities in between.  At one point, you are able to walk along the tow path that was used to pull the barges and boats along the river in the past.  Once you get to Bouziès you have decisions to make.  The first time I made this hike was with two friends from Tour de Faure.  On the outskirts of Bouziès we were teasing about doing the hike in "-igh -eels" when I realized they meant High Heels.  So we proceeded to rest and have "Booze" in Bouzièrs!  After a couple of bierre pressions, we decided on the scenic route home up through the causse to St. Cirq Lapopie and back down to Tour de Faure.  Your other options are to come back the way you came or cross the Lot and take the road home on the other side of the river.  If you're up for it and have the time as well as very comfortable shoes, the hike up is spectacular.  Imagine looking down with everything you just passed flowing along below you.  At one point there is a look out where you can see the towpath and one of the locks, as well as the meeting of the Lot and Célé Rivers.  I've never made this hike by myself, but have often thought that I'd love to do it alone with a picnic lunch in the off season.  I'd take the scenic route home and picnic at the look out, raise a glass of Cahors wine and nibble on some cabecou cheese, french bread and pears before I made my way back to the bus.  If we're really lucky these days, when we get to Tour de Faure we won't have long to wait for the bus and one of our favorite drivers will be driving so we'll get dropped off right in front of the Chatette!

Sometimes you just know when photos are going to be good.  I took this photo from the tow path looking back toward St. Cirq Lapopie from where we had just come.  Sometime this afternoon I have guests arriving from around the Lafayette Louisiana area.  I'll let you know if we manage to make this trip together and tell you about our visit soon. 

Wendy's Window on the Lot

I've written quite a bit about my friend Wendy, who was the concierge at the hotel I landed in after I arrived in Paris in '95 and Madam Vera had died.  I was a wreck.  She was wonderful.  We stood at the counter one day while she read and translated Madam Vera's obituary for me.  By October of '97, I was making my second visit to the Lot and Wendy had made me her amazing offer.  I had "Create the Work You Love With Me" and came home and wrote a piece to accompany my photos called: "The Window on the Lot".  I'd like to share a bit of it here with you-the beginning-the end and a piece in the middle about my very first French Professor-Lester!

I used to think I was a city girl.  I've always loved Paris.  I have seen it in all seasons.  I know that there is color there, but the Paris of my heart is a series of Robert Doisneau photographs set to the tune of La Vie En Rose.  The lovers were always in love.  They always kissed and touched.  Life and love survived in a simpler time.  My eyes chose to see and my heart chose to feel only the black and white and the shades of gray.  I was once told that you could find your heart in Paris.  I did.  It led me to my soul-le Lot.  When I think of le Lot, I see only color.  I can't remember a color so crisp or life so alive as that which I first saw and felt standing in front of my window on le Lot.  The sky was clear.  The air smelled fresh and the sun always shown in my mind's eye...  

...A four-legged guy remains by my side.  Lester is often better company than the two-legged variety.  As a pup, he got into a fight with a yappy poodle that scarred his champion face just below the right eye.  Poor Lester, he is no longer the perfect specimen of sable Labrador retriever.  Resting his nose on my leg after a sloppy kiss, he looks at me with his playful beckoning brown eyes, and I can't think of a thing that could make him more perfect.  He is my French Professor.  I have learned that couchez means lie down, assis means sit, and arrete means stop.  When I say bonjour, Lester gives me his paw.  Just when you forget that he is really a dog, you find him chasing the bumpers of cars at full speed down the dirt road of a nearby farmer's land,swimming and fetching in the Lot, lifting his leg on the mailbox, and greeting you at the gate with his huge metal dish in his mouth.  Lester is multi-talented.  I know he would say j'ai faim if he could...

...It is morning, but the sun is not yet up.  I return to Paris today on a very early train.  The lights of St. Cirq Lapopie are casting a mystical shadow at the close of my trip.  Will I return?  Could I return to stay for a year to write and "hang out" in France or is it just wishful thinking?  Robert Johnson said: "If a fantasy is not responded to, it becomes an energy leak.  It is the creative faculty, squandering itself into wishful thinking.  Wishing for what one does not have is a symptom of unaligned energy."

Epilogue-My friends moved to Brussels in the spring.  Lester found a new home.  But, I return to le Lot in the fall.

The Epilogue's Epilogue-Wendy and Stephane are now living in Viet Nam with their children Matthieu and Sarah.  They've sold their home in Tour de Faure.  I'm now living on the Lot and have many windows on the Lot.  Wendy and her family will visit this summer!

Dix Mots-Can Chili be that Good?

I've written before about my sister Kathleen and her husband Tom Merello.  They were the inspiration for one of my "dix mots" stories for my French Class with Christiane recently.  I had so much fun with it that I shared it with Kat when we spoke over the phone last week...lots of long distance laughing! I'm sure she wouldn't mind if I share our fictional story with you.

Dix Mots-Ten Words-plat-(M) platter; cocotte (F) stew pan; oeil (M) eye; corps (M) body; arc en ciel (M) rainbow; foudre (F) lightening; léger light; papillon (M) butterfly; soeur (F) sister; beau-père (M) father-in-law

In English-My sister Kathleen and I are very close.  When I go to St. Louis, we don't cook together.  One day, we decided to cook something light in a stew-pan and serve it to her husband Tom and her father-in-law at her home.  We cooked chili-light.  Kathleen had sauce in her eye.  I had garlic, celery, and green pepper on my body and in the pockets of my overalls.  We were very hungry.  When we sat at the table with Tom and his father, we put the bowl on a very pretty platter with French bread.  Our dinner was so magnificent. There was lightening, a rainbow, and a huge monarch butterfly came to sit on the platter.  Mr. Merello told Kathleen:  "It's okay with me if you stay here!" 

En Français-Ma soeur Kathleen et moi sommes trés intime.  Quand je vais à St. Louis nous n'avons pas cuisiné ensemble.  Un jour, nous décidions de cuire quelque choses léger dans une cocotte et le servions a son marie Tom et son beau-père chez elle.  Nous avons cuit chili léger.  Kathleen avait de la sauce tomate dans son oeil.  J'avais ail, celerie, et poivre vert sur mon corps et dans les poches de ma salopette.  Nous avions très faim.  Quand nous nous asseyions a table avec Tom et son père, nous mettions la jatte sur un très joli plat avec du pain français.  Notre répas était tellement magnifique. Qu'il y avait la foudre, un arc en ciel et un grand papillon monarch qui est venu s'asseoir sur le plat.  Monsieur Merello a dit a Kathleen: "C'est bon avec moi si tu reste ici!"

The photos are of Kathleen and Tom at our launching pad in Cahors and some wonderful pink garlic (ail) from a journey into the market in Figeac.  The only thing that would have made the trip to the market nicer would have been if Kat and Tom had been there to share the day with me!

Collages and the Contest

During a previous "unveiling", I mentioned the 3 large collage panels that now hang in our conference room in the village Mairie.  Unlike my earlier unveiling, all of the photos in these 3 collages are photos of Cadrieu and were taken by a variety of photographers: myself, Greg Nicholas, Jean-Pierre Martenot, Patricia Laroche and Christiane Duponchelle-all members of my Monday afternoon language class.  Greg and I got the frames and put it all together.  We talked about having contests...dots on the collages for which you had to answer-"Where is this?" or asking for suggestions for the name of the collage.  We settled on the contest to name the panels of the collage and during the election of our new Municipal Council-we accepted entries in our red box in the photo there.  We received over 40 entries (one person submitted 15) and ended up with a tie after the vote in one of our language classes:  Greg Nicholas won with Cadrieu Through Our Eyes and Jackie Gardaix won with the Riches of Cadrieu.  The collages are up and a plaque with the winner's names and the names of the photographers hangs along side. Each winner received a calendar and a set of photo cards from me.  It was a lot of fun for me to go up to the Mairie on election day and visit with everyone.  They asked me where many of the photos were taken...most I knew the answers to.  The best part was to see people get excited to see their home, pet, flowers, farm equipment, etc. and to feel special and a part of the project.  I know I felt special.  I'm not the village photographer...yet...but these days, if I show up at an event without my camera everyone thinks I've lost my mind.  This weekend coming up is the meal sponsored by the hunters in the village.  Believe me-my camera will be in my pocket!

Blooming Beautiful

I've talked a lot about getting to see my plum tree bloom for the first time, and thought it might be nice to show you the bloomer in action this season.  It began late last week and was at its peak on Monday.  Today I noticed that the leaves are already pushing the tiny pink petals to the ground.  You might think it was snowing out there if you didn't know better. 

Mine isn't the only one that's blooming and beautiful at the moment.  On my bus ride into Figeac this morning for the poste, market, grocery store and special wine store-everything was blooming all along the route.  There is one farm close to Figeac that has a road that is lined with at least a dozen of these trees on each side.  "Spectacular" doesn't do it justice! Every time I see it, (blooming or not) it takes my breath away.  Last year they began road work on a diversion around Figeac that came up the hill near this beautiful grove.  I held my breath each time the bus came around the bend until I could see that the grove was still standing and the expressway work had passed it by.  One of these days I'll get off the bus at Faycelles and make the very long walk back to get a shot of my favorite plum trees in the spring.  Come to think of it, maybe I better get busy this week and pick a day so I catch them this spring and before the highway is actually finished and possibly in the way of my photo op!