How I Spent the 4th

Calvignac

No surprise....the 4th of July is a non-starter here in France. The only thing special about Tuesday...it was the Tuesday of the last week of school for French children. No fireworks, no parades, no waving American flags. So how did I spend my 4th? Here in Calvignac.

My friend, Elizabeth lives here. Among other things, she's a massage therapist and I had an afternoon appointment. Couldn't have been a prettier day. The views are lovely from the village. A pastoral valley in one direction...

And from the other side of the village...

What the heck is that?

It's an art installation; a scanner code which is part of the annual art-along-the-Lot project put on by the Center of Contemporary Art (Georges Pompidou) in Cajarc. This year's exposition is called "Co-mutations" and seeks to marry technology with nature.

There were three installations on the edge of the village. Entitled "Ciel-Nuages-Terre" (Sky-Clouds-Earth) the pieces of an old farm plow draped with cloud-like cotton atop a huge flat rock shimmered against the brilliant blue sky. Not something I'd put in my garden, but interesting.

Thru the ancient arch into the village to Elizabeth's house where I spent a delightful afternoon being pampered, sipping a verveine tisane and enjoying a nice chat in French.

Fireworks will have to wait until Quatorze Juillet, the French national holiday on 14 July.

Together Again!

Parisot Writing Group

Together...all 10 of us....again! While Anita's been busy working on her MA in writing at Bath Spa, our writing group has soldiered on without our leader. We've met periodically, done some critiquing in small groups, read each other's work and explored some writing topics on our own. But it just hasn't been the same without Anita! We were absolutely thrilled to gather yesterday at the Schoolhouse in Mazerolles for a lovely morning on Anita's preau discussing writing projects and topics, books, and generally catching up. A couple of us even got a little teary-eyed that we were all able to make it and welcome Anita back home to France. We're fired up and ready to write!

Memories of an Old Friend

It's funny how the Universe works.

Yesterday I posted an NPR article on Facebook about this weekend's 50 year anniversary of the Monterey Pop Festival. I was there, and it was a life-changing event for me. I went with my friend, Christine. Chris and I went to nursing school together; we shared our first-ever apartment. She taught me how to cook. Actually I kind of knew how to cook, but had no idea how to put a meal together and on the table at the same time. Chris, having cooked for years for her family, showed me how to time things so everything was ready at once. She moved to San Diego after I did and worked for me in the medical intensive care unit at University Hospital. She married, moved to Texas, and when that didn't work out, came back to San Diego and lived with Skip and me until she could get her life back together. We loaned her some money, so she could buy a car. But as these things do, we drifted apart as I became more focused on marriage and my new baby, and she became more focused on her career. We lost touch.

Over the past 50 years, I've occasionally thought about her. Last week while thinking about my life right out of nursing school, she came to mind. Then yesterday as I posted about the Festival, I thought about her again. I searched FB, but had no luck finding her. This morning I tried googling her name and came up with this...

Click here for obituary.

It looks like Chris never remarried and spent her 40 year nursing career in the San Diego area.

She died on May 27 of this year.

Funny how the Universe works.

Work in Progress

Last Sunday Maggie and Bill invited me come along on an 'open gardens' adventure. Our destination was Chateau de Bournazel in the Aveyron. While fascinating in its own right, we didn't visit the Chateau itself; what we wanted to see this day was the Renaissance garden. Check out this video for a brief overview in English of the Chateau. A visit will definitely be a future goal!

Last year the first phase of the garden was completed which included this large pond and nine parterres, square garden plots, planted with shrubs, flowers, and trees symbolic of the stages of a Renaissance prince's life and education.

 This square anchored by a large rock feature surrounded by water and snowy white daisies symbolizes the mountains and geography necessary to be an educated man.

I love how box hedge is used to border individual planting areas. All the plants used are those that would have been present either in the wild or cultivated during the mid-to-late 1500s.

This square depicts the solar system and heavenly bodies.

There is the beginning of a labyrinth.

This is a well dating from the time of the original garden.

There's a lot more to see, of course, and since this is only the first year of the garden, the entire site is a work in progress. A visit every year will reveal even more of its beauty as the entire plan is completed. In the meantime, have a look at this video about building the garden from the Chateau's website (in French, but with English subtitles.)

French Mailboxes

I posted a photo on Facebook earlier this week of an American mailbox that Maggie and I saw on our backwoods walk Monday morning. It prompted a comment by a friend who asked what French mailboxes look like. Today's post is in answer to that question. This is the mailbox outside the gates to the Chateau. In the spirit of full disclosure...not all French mailboxes are this pretty!

This is the front and back of mine. The green and red sticker tells the post lady that I don't want the advertising circulars. I can open it from inside the gate which is especially nice when it's raining...I don't get wet.

Patrick's mailbox. The gray capped PVC pipe is for his morning baguette delivery straight from the bakery in Cajarc.

A selection of other boxes that Lucie and I pass every day on our morning walk. The boxes themselves are pretty plain, but their settings are beautiful!

And finally...this is the box to post letters. It's on the wall of the Mairie. La Poste, the national mail service, uses yellow and dark blue as its colors. Mail trucks are yellow with dark blue lettering.

The American mailbox that started it all.

Owl or Gryphon?

A bit of discussion on Facebook yesterday with Maggie and Vanessa. On our walk through the countryside, Maggie and I came upon this iron cross along the road. Crosses are very common in the French countryside, but the critter in the center of this one is not common on them. It looked like an owl to Maggie and me which seemed to be an odd symbol for a cross. Maggie consulted Vanessa on FB and Vanessa thought perhaps it was a gryphon, also odd to me. So this morning I did a bit of Google research...

Gryphons are, indeed, a Christian symbol from the Middle Ages. Who knew? A mythical animal, the gryphon (or griffin) is a combination of a lion and an eagle. To medieval Christians it symbolized the resurrected Christ who had both a heavenly (eagle) and earthly (lion) nature. I looked at some Google images of gryphons, though, and couldn't find any that resembled this guy.

So, I tried owl and guess what....he's a Christian symbol as well! Actually the owl has two meanings. It can represent the Jews who rejected Christ, and it can be a night owl, "one that shuns the light much as Christ shunned the glory of human praise." I'm not sure I like either one of those meanings, but our little owl definitely looks like one of the Google images ones....

What do you think....owl or gryphon?

International Dining

It doesn't get much better than breakfast on the terrace...with a bit of international flair. Greek yogurt topped with locally grown strawberries, fresh from yesterday's market in Cajarc.

 

A mug of English tea thanks to my friend, Jean Howling. A dab of lovely rich French butter for my still-warm croissant...

and a dollop of Iowa peach jam, a gift from my friend and jam-maker extraordinaire, Karen Heege. It's like a sweet taste of Iowa summer on my tongue!

And for dessert, luscious cherries picked Friday according to the market vendor and served up in a pretty polka dot bowl made by a regional potter.

Listening to U2 on the computer.

America, Ireland, England, France and Greece

A very international Sunday breakfast!