Springtime in France–A Friend Shares Her Travels

Honestly I have had the best time following my friend Sarah Gayle Carter blogging around France that I feel guilty keeping it a secret. Her photos are sublime–she is an artist after all–and her commentary is pithy, interesting and often funny. Here below is her latest. You can also click […]

March 31, 2013 Adventure & Travel, Flowers & Gardens, Sketches, Paintings & Projects

Honestly I have had the best time following my friend Sarah Gayle Carter blogging around France that I feel guilty keeping it a secret. Her photos are sublime–she is an artist after all–and her commentary is pithy, interesting and often funny. Here below is her latest. You can also click on the link sign up to follow yourself.

You may recall I wrote about Sarah’s work–her dog portraits in particular–here. Now see her in action on the road. And call me clairvoyant, but I bet we’ll see some wonderful paintings from this adventure, and I for one can’t wait.

Here you go:

Sarah Gayle Carter: confessions of a dog painting, food loving, seeker of wisdom and truth. aka: an ageing, orally fixated aesthete taking life with a large dose of laughter.

I observe, I eat, I create – therefore I am.

Spring in France (or: Carry Me Back to Old Virginia)

Spring has arrived in Southwest France.

And if I didn’t know better, I’d swear I was home in Virginia.

Daffodils nodding, clumps of sunny Forsythia and coral Quince, all set against richly greening grass, and still bare trees. Even with my eyes shut, the smells alone convince me it’s late March in Virginia: lightly flowery, moist earth, new grass, all dampish and warmish and……home.

Then I open my eyes and here I am. Red tiled roofs, cobbled streets, half-timbered houses, ancient churches set among freshly plowed fields and freshly pruned vineyards. France, in all it’s early spring glory.

It won’t look – or smell – like this in Maine until early May.

See below for on the ground, up to date photo-weather report from neighbors at home in Maine. (Hmm…..maybe we need to stay in France a bit longer. Or go to Virginia.)

From the earliest puffs of blooming Almond in the Languedoc, to greening willows, pink flowering Cherry, peeking crocus, hyacinth and primrose in window boxes, we’ve watched Spring creeping with us across France, slowly but surely pushing out the last days of winter. It’s moved with us across this wide and diverse region – and now it’s ” Pâques” . Easter. Who needs church when you’ve got Chocolate animals of every shape and size? The not so religious French may or may not be going to church today, but from the looks of the windows we’ve seen in shop windows, they’re eating a lot of chocolate.