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Although most of the streets in Najac wind all around and up and down (some very steeply down), there is one that is very straight, lined with row houses, and offers this view of the Château. You will find my Najac cat there too. I hope you enjoy the row house tour of Najac below, you might even meet an old friend. Happy Monday!
Yesterday, I teased about the 25 million photos I am sometimes moved to take in a new place. Little did you know (or maybe you know me too well), I did exactly that at Restaurant Le Sud in Villefranche. Jean, Paul and I stopped there to have a coffee together. It was special, because Jean and I pass it all the time, but never stop. When we finished, but lingered; I was off shooting. I try to be discreet and also balance my photo taking with the constant shutter bugging I've seen many others do who walk and point and shoot, walk and point and shoot, shoot, shoot; with what I imagine to be no time to even look and see what the shot is you have in the view finder. I sometimes think my friends cringe with me and my camera. My photos are always better when I'm alone. I didn't bring it the night of our special moule dinner in Toulonjac, and wished I had...incredible setting sun, an empty restaurant when we arrived, and beautiful food with wonderful people. In the darkest Aveyron night in the car on the way home from dinner, I was pondering my photo habits. When I asked, Jean had to admit that: I've never asked her to stop the car so I can take a photo! We all chuckled. I'll leave you with a few more shots from Villefranche-Happpy Sunday!
...she was getting in her rental car and driving away to Toulouse to catch her plane back to the states. When I put the last year of our lives side by side, I marvel at the motion and see that it has been quite a year for both of us. As I've written before...Evelyn is the magic I mélanged with my "Mélange-ing Magic" scheme last year. And now, in less than a week...I'll be hopping on the midnight train to Paris to meet Evelyn and her dog Lucie at Charles de Gaulle Airport the morning of September 23. Her voyage here will not be that much different than the one I made with Dal and Sam back in 2006. Remembering how difficult that was for us, I offered to meet them there and she said yes! She will be coming to stay at the Chatette for an extended period of time. There are so many wonderful things about this for me: I can share what's left of the barn and vernissage celebrations with her since she was so much a part of them last year; she can continue to help me with my manual driving practice, but above all it means that my Dal and Sam will be with her and Lucie when I'm off to work in Holland from the middle of November to the middle of January. Don't get me wrong-there are nice things in here for Evelyn too. We've already got the an apero party scheduled for the first weekend she's here. You'll be hearing lots more about our adventures together and separately over the months ahead. We are counting down the days!
Having been a planner most of my life, letting go and allowing a day (or any length of time for that matter) carry me a long has been a hard earned practice. I've learned that some of my most "unplanned" days that start out "empty", truly turn out to be the best. I've come to love days that have space in them. There's nothing I have to do, no where I have to go and I have a tendency to just wander and do whatever strikes me in the moment. Yesterday was one of those days. I'd decided to go and do a little work in the garden. Pruner in hand, the phone rang. Greg's friends, Sylvia and Brian called to say they would like to come down for me to give them the little tour around that I had promised them. I still had a little time before their arrival, so I went out front and began pruning all the dead lavender. I love the aroma and have various winter uses for it...sometimes I like it with the fire in the fireplace, sometimes in a bunch with a beautiful ribbon in a corner somewhere, or like last year...lavender, exotic bird feathers, and beautiful ribbon made an unusual, regional, substitution for a star on the top of my Christmas Tree. By the time they arrived, I was almost finished with my lavender. We took our coffee and sat over on the land beside the lavoir and wandered around the "compound" and down by the river. After they left, I had this huge bouquet of lavender. It's never too early to think about Christmas in my book, et voila! Lavender treetop presents for friends, and a day that was full of surprises and better than anything I could have planned myself! And I don't want to forget...HAPPY 80TH BIRTHDAY DAD!
Facebook has been a very new addition to my life. I was pulled into that world kicking and screaming, by constant invites from friends and a little...no, a lot, very strong encouragement from both of my brothers. My brother Jim has recently posted a number of Post-Katrina shots from his spring 2006 visit to New Orleans, to which a number of comments have been made. One woman wanted to know what had happened to a kitty in one of the photos. Once I enlarged it, I could see...it was my little "Scaredy Cat" who lived behind Columbus Street after the storm. All the walls around the yard had collapsed, the fence had fallen completely in some spots and was wavy in others. This little brindle was my favorite of a bunch of cats and kittens that shared my coffee and petit dejeuner every morning out in the yard after the storm. Once the fence was finally up, I worried about how I was going to be able to continue to feed them. I began with a shallow bucket on the fence, but all we got was wet crunchies some days. I finally just began throwing some over the fence onto a file cabinet. As you can see, the gang was very creative. They'd be out there waiting for me every morning. Once they began to dig in, it was quite a view!
I'll leave you with two photos, the first awaited me upon my return and the second is a Columbus Street of the past.
Now that we are a "compound" here (as my friends are beginning to call us), it isn't unusual to find me out wandering around in the dark in the morning with my first cup of coffee, or hop-stepping down the rail road tracks to sit beside the lavoir with a glass of wine around dusk. Of course, most times I have my camera in my pocket. The reflections and textures speak to me...et voila!
Feeling fall today, and wondering where the summer went...this photo from fall 2009 spoke to me. Last year at this time, I had a limbo life. I don't do dangle well. So much was swirling around and not landing, that it was difficult to catch my breath and sort through the next steps I might have to take. What a difference a year can make. I sit here this morning looking forward to so much: two work contracts running into the middle of next year, Evelyn's impending arrival for an extended period of time to help take care of the Chatette and Dal and Sam while I'm off hustling my bustle in various locations around Europe, and an upcoming visit to New Orleans and St. Louis since I'll be working through the holidays. I'd accepted the fact that I would never again feel that sense of "settled" that I felt during the times of my life in New Orleans. Funny enough, five years later I'm home feeling settled. I know right where I'll be, what I'll be doing and the people who will be in my life as I move forward from home in France. That doesn't mean it might not change, and I'll have to go with the flow once more-but in this moment, I am most grateful for coming back around to "settled" in my life in a way I thought I had lost forever.
...what about the "Americans"? I looked in the dictionary just to be sure, and there was no "Ameriphile" to be found. Do we have a term for people who love everything American?
This all began when one of my friends from Cahors told me he wanted to have a "day in the country" on the two days he had off this week. We sorted it all out. He arrived Wednesday evening and headed to the guest room with his guitar and overnight bag. We went in to the Eco-Marche to get some stuff so I could make a spaghetti dinner and had a really nice evening together. Since he had never been to the other side of the river, I suggested we go to Saujac, the Belgian Cross and Saut de la Mounine so he could see how beautiful we are from across the river and from on high. As one of my English friends would say, he was "bloody blown away". But then I was too...just for a very different reason.
Every time time I get into his car, he has American country music playing. I feel right at home. We generally burst into a round or two of Coward of the County or the Gambler. But then George Straight came on singing Always and Forever. We began our usual, and then he announces to me that he can sing George's whole song in French and commences. I've got George in English in one ear and my friend in French in the other. He tells me that listening to American country music helps him work on his American accent. He's good-really good...so good that I teased him that he must have been a southerner in a previous life. As if this weren't enough to make me smile at the twists and turns of my life in France, he began playing the Star Spangled Banner on Monsieur Winkelmann when we returned to the Chatette. He picked a few lines by ear, and I went in to check and see if I had the music anywhere. I can't say I ever looked for it before, or played it, so when I found it I was really surprised. I played the treble melody for him, but then he wanted more. I'm not too good with an audience with pieces I've never played, but this was easier than I thought...and POWERFUL. I was proud. He said: "WOW"! I'd like to say he's an "Ameriphile" or some such thing, but he is someone who reaches out to the world from France.
Realizing that today is September 11-a date that Americans and the rest of the world will never forget-I leave you with photos that honor my "land of the free and the home of the brave", paired with the light of three candles to honor the memories of the past, respect the present, and light the way to a future of peace. (The flag always flies at Mom and Dad's-I hung the American Flag on the front door and the New Orleans flag on the terrace after the last Presidential Election-and then our candles of peace.)