One or two people have commented that I seem to be a tad over-positive in my descriptions of our life here: weather, house, village, France, people – I’m painting it all as good, even when it’s raining which it is doing a lot. According to these wise and sceptical friends, I’m in danger of seeing everything through rose-coloured glasses.‘More like rosé-coloured glasses,’ says R cuttingly but he could have a point. The rosé wines sold in the local supermarché are not strong, they’re cheap and they’re a pretty colour. Alcopops for the generationally challenged.
To get back to the point, there are a number of good reasons for being positive. For a start we’re visitors here, only staying for a year so don’t want to carp or be too rude about local culture and customs. I think you have to stay in a place for a while before you can even begin to understand les différences. Also I know some French people read this blog - Bienvenue mes amis - as well as a number of people who live or stay in this very village and I don’t want anybody coming round and putting our fenêtres in, merci beaucoup. This is not to say that we don’t think some things Français are very strange, in fact surprisingly un-English, so for those among you who love to dwell on the dark-side, the next posting will include some negatives.
The biggest change for us isn’t between England and France but between city and country. From central Manchester to tiny village is a huge leap and probably visitors from Paris and Lyon find the change almost as enormous as we do. There’s something else. Time is getting short. When you’re younger you feel as if there’s always a future in which you can do any number of things, go any number of places, live any number of lives. Then you realise that it isn’t true (for me that realisation came late, I always was a bit slow on the uptake), that the future’s running out fast and if you want to do something, better do it now. So, not only do I want to be here, but I also want to enjoy it, to see what there is to see, to revel in difference, strangeness, even coldness and wetness, to be awake and alive.
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3 comments:
Enjoyed the philosophical look at life in this blog. it emphasises how watching the seasons unfold on a daily basis brings you so much closer to the passage of time and the knowledge that the seasons and life will carry on regardless. Still the rose coloured stuff helps. Am still conjugating french verbs to translate the words full of wisdom on the cemetary gates. i can't get past the literal translation with my very limited French. Can someone help me out?
Look forward to seeing them myself soon. your 1st sibling S.
the non literal jist is "we are already here! and "you will be coming" Great stuff!! martine
Hello Martine,
Thanks for your reply. I had eventually worked it out with some effort and since then have been able to see the gates myself. A beautiful sleepy area of france where the cycle of life is very apparent and nature takes precedence. A humbling notion but'c'est la vie!
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