Side Trip
Glenn and I had a great time in Portugal and Spain. (More on that another time.) Two days before returning to Atlanta, our friend Char emailed and said a room in the farmhouse she was renting in the Luberon had opened up in. Would we like it? Provence in September? Perfect! She and her guests were getting there Sunday. We were leaving from Lisbon Monday. Glenn just couldn’t do it. Too much going on back home. I however had nothing planned. After a few hours of checking schedules, I booked a flight from Lisbon to Marseille. It was meant to be; this flight was 15 minutes later than Glenn’s and it ended up being at the very next gate? It was strange saying goodbye to Glenn as he went back to Atlanta while I extended my stay in Europe to include a week in Provence.
This is the stuff of fantasy for me. Really? Getting a last minute call to join friends in southern France for a week of eating, drinking and touring? I read about these kind of things happening to others. Now I am here, drinking coffee with the sun rising through a filter of olive trees and the distant sound of a tractor in a field harvesting something. Maybe apples, maybe grapes. Too soon for olives isn’t it? I have been getting up before everybody else so I have the entire 10 hectares to myself every morning.
The only person I knew before getting here was Char. The other eight people are from all over; London, New Hampshire, Boston, Italy (orginallly), California and Mexico. What a great, interesting , and diverse group of guests. They have all known each other in some cases for decades but they have been very accommodating to me. Everyone sort of breaks in to smaller groups during the day. Day trips, pool time, market runs and shopping. But everyone is back by 5 or 6, dresses for dinner and shows up for cocktails by 7. I love it. There is really something to making the effort to dress for dinner, even when it’s just the 10 of us eating at home. It makes every night a bit more special, and I believe subconsciously it puts people on better behavior. If that is my only take away from this, beyond a fantastic stay, I am the better for it.
This is the stuff of fantasy for me. Really? Getting a last minute call to join friends in southern France for a week of eating, drinking and touring? I read about these kind of things happening to others. Now I am here, drinking coffee with the sun rising through a filter of olive trees and the distant sound of a tractor in a field harvesting something. Maybe apples, maybe grapes. Too soon for olives isn’t it? I have been getting up before everybody else so I have the entire 10 hectares to myself every morning.
The only person I knew before getting here was Char. The other eight people are from all over; London, New Hampshire, Boston, Italy (orginallly), California and Mexico. What a great, interesting , and diverse group of guests. They have all known each other in some cases for decades but they have been very accommodating to me. Everyone sort of breaks in to smaller groups during the day. Day trips, pool time, market runs and shopping. But everyone is back by 5 or 6, dresses for dinner and shows up for cocktails by 7. I love it. There is really something to making the effort to dress for dinner, even when it’s just the 10 of us eating at home. It makes every night a bit more special, and I believe subconsciously it puts people on better behavior. If that is my only take away from this, beyond a fantastic stay, I am the better for it.
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