Awaken to Travel in the South West of France

Bonjour everyone,

Yes, it’s been a while. I’ve been testing myself as to whether I can forget France and my french awakening and allow time to pass to dissolve all thing French.. It didn’t and I return.

I tried to imagine my world without France and I couldn’t. I came to the conclusion that there are moments when we dream and there are moments when we live the dream. So I’m bringing you a snapshot of my view from a dusty corner of road in the south west of France.

Take a look at this my friends…

And you decide for me. Is this living the dream?

Maybe you should allow some of YOUR time to pass in France. Just a thought.

AuRevoir and Best Wishes, Therese Waddell

copyright@2012 Therese Waddell

Awaken to French Decor

Bonjour my friends,

Why don’t you come and journey with me through some of the French homes and chateaus I’ve stayed in across France and get a sneak preview into the delicious world of French interiors?

We usually need this to enter the French bedroom…

and just imagine who has turned this same key before us last century!

In other French homes, we may well cast our eyes instantly onto beautiful embellished walls of murals and trompe l’oeil decoration. It’s just like stepping straight into a glossy page from ‘Better Homes and Gardens’ magazine. I don’t mind a bit of Mary Poppins transporting myself.

I can take you through unexpected rooms of historical significance as we enter century old libraries with artworks and even brocante antique bird cages…

And you’ll enjoy the quircky world in the homes of french provincial artisans who simply allow imagination to run wild… even in the bathroom.

And they’ll welcome us in elegant Bretagne interiors with more refined French simplicity

and chateaus where their wonderful ambience are true testaments to the passion of their generational owners. My french awakening to decor with its unique French appeal using beautiful french fabrics and quilts, made my stay even more inspiring and memorable than you can imagine.

But keep in mind you will sometimes have to polish the patina from an antique balustrade on your way up and down a French staircase…

to breakfast with the stars…

Life can be tough in French interiors.

Discover for yourself. x

AuRevoir,

Best Wishes, Therese

Awaken to a New Year in France

Bonjour lovelies,

Well, well,… Christmas has come and gone and look at us, smack bang in the middle of a new year! Bonne Annee mon amis! We have a new beginning to continue the same life as last year or introduce something new. I know it’s difficult for some of you to get out of the routine for many reasons but I’m asking you to just contemplate an alternate road or patch of grass or another window of opportunity and HOLD that thought.

Can you imagine yourself here on french grass in Flavigny perhaps, in the heart of Burgundy?

(You do remember my escapades on the trek for more than chocolate? go to http://myfrenchawakening.wordpress.com/tag/flavigney-sur-ozerain/ )

or take a peep down any one of the country roads you could be driving through on your next France adventure…

or look out from some other window- a french window. Come on! My french awakening sees no harm in discovering a new view which is very different from the one you’re seeing now perhaps?

Life is sometimes greener on the other side particularly if you’re travelling through the south of France…

or the north east corner…  (remember Colmar? http://myfrenchawakening.wordpress.com/2011/01/02/awaken-to-a-new-year-in-colmar/ )

or from this window in the east, at Quemigny-sur-Seine, France…

and more views from country France from modern frames…

and ancient ones in eighth century stone as at Mont St Michel (remember Awaken to Mont St Michel? See http://myfrenchawakening.wordpress.com/tag/mont-st-michel/ )

And if you fancy yourself as more of a city mouse than a country mouse, you might appreciate looking out from the windows behind wrought iron balconies in Paris…

Or from that very special window in a beautiful french village in between.

The view’s not bad from here.

Just imagine.

Give France a thought this year. It won’t disappoint.

Au revoir,

Best Wishes, Therese Waddell

copyright@Therese Waddell 2012

Awaken to French blogging

Bonjour my friends,

The last month of 2011 has stirred from slumber, its manic face ready to perform the Season of Silliness. December is a crazy month isn’t it but somehow it can allow great things and blustering dreams to foster. It  happened to me two years ago way back in December 2009. I began blogging and writing about France and before I knew it, two years has elapsed and I guess that’s a pretty long time in the sea of French awakenings and things in general, don’t you think?

Two years of marking French time, transporting ideas and images from me to you and hopefully sending maybe just a tad of genuine inspiration into a cyberspace I know very little of. You my lovely, have followed my ramblings of travel hints and stories in and about France and relived my fond memories (and maybe yours) all this time without one complaint and without one sniff of cynical air or dose of friendly doubt.

Some of you have liked a photograph from my little trustworthy camera…

while others will smell the smells, taste the tastes and soak up the real passion and joie de vivre of French living. That’s just who you are I guess. You take the good stuff with you on your journey every time.

And I love that! I love your comments and your support even though most of you would not recognise me as I pass you by in the street.

All along though, I’ve been aware of your presence on your side of the invisibility cloak, silently nodding in the act of contrition. Yes, sometimes we do regret and are remorseful together in the fact that holidays don’t come all the time and we cannot get to France as regularly as we would want and stay in magical French places like this one all the time…

(Well I haven’t bought my little house in France yet to invite you all over!) I hear the long sigh…

However my friend, I remain very happy in the fact that we can fill our minds with images of this beautiful country and my french awakening is widened further by your own knowledge and clear memories, commenting and sharing French experiences. I’ve learnt a lot from you without ever putting your face to a name sometimes.

Soul to soul and friends apart, I want to thank you firstly for reading my humble blog on France and my french awakening and secondly (as it’s December), I’d like to wish you and your family a beautiful Christmas 2011 from one francophile heart to another.

Let’s continue to dream.

Au revoir,

Best Wishes, Therese  xx

Awaken to French Luncheons

Bonjour everyone,

I’ve decided to let you in on a secret. I’m not French. I pretend to be in a very big way. (Je ne comprends pas! I do not understand!) Maybe I need to see some councillor who specializes in split personas, specifically split nationalities and I may be cured in time. Do I have the time to lie around on a couch professing to a total stranger all sorts of whims and dreams, maybe learning how to reprogram myself by perhaps repeating all sorts of rapid eye movement therapeutic games to delete ones memory of all things French?  I don’t know.

I blame my father. He would sing and do a little dance whilst reciting French nouns to me from his little school boy companion, ‘Castell’- known to some as a French Language Book. To me it was like witchcraft. It had powers yet to be overcome.

I blame France too. Heady with gourmet aromas, her gluttonous arms swooping up the world’s best produce and finest cuisines, artistic nourishment and fashionista icons…stop me anytime. France wooed me like the best of lovers and I surrended to France body and soul; hence the birth of My French Awakening!

I feel that now it may be too late and there’s no turning back. My friends don’t discourage me enough. They shouldn’t give me gifts, ‘Made in France’ like Eiffel Tower tea towels (dear Domenica) and books on The Paris Markets (sweet Cathy) and French paper weights, French DVDs, postcards, stationery, jewellery, perfume, brooches, cognac, jams, mustards and so on. My French collection has bred faster than you can say “truffle”.

And my closest friends definately shouldn’t travel to France with me (are you listening dear The’re’se?) and energise the devil within. Revitalising the French spirit comes with untold consequences.

My family will confirm I’m obsessed. It’s out of control. I’m now have an ongoing relationship with a small real estate office in the south of France which sends me emails and photographs of potential homes from chateaus to delapidated barns. I’ll take anything really if I could.

And last weekend, I started hallucinating again and set about pretending my entire home was in France. Rousing friends dressed up with feathered hats and berets, scarves and frills to a French luncheon on our lawn.They actively encouraged me to cook a five course French Provincial menu using my French recipes from The Paris International Cooking School (you remember http://myfrenchawakening.wordpress.com/2011/06/15/awaken-to-the-paris-international-cooking-school/ don’t you?) and my travels across France. There was leek and potato soup, blue cheese tart and auvergnate salad, Mont St Michel style Scallops, beef with Potato Lardon and Aubergine Bitteroise and a choc, nutty, brandied meringue and carmel shard dessert. Oh, did I mention the French bubbly? My son even made French stencils for me for the coffees! Now that’s feeding the addiction if I don’t know what!

Let me show you a few snaps and the extent of my condition.

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You be the judge. It’s not fair really. I don’t live in France. I don’t live in France. I don’t live in France. Awaken. Awaken.

Au revoir,

Best Wishes to you,

Therese Waddell

 

Awaken to a Paris Sky

Bonjour my friends,

It HAS been a while. I hope you’re exactly as I left you last month as good things never change and you good people remain so from day to day, month to month and every year on. However, I hope you’re feeling good even though we feel the throb of busyness and a grinding ache for halcyon days at times.

My french awakening learned a long time ago that Paris, the fabulous City of Lights, can be what you want it to be and apart from bringing you stimulation and inspiration at an elevated level, it can actually bring you great peace…if you are looking.

Not a lot of people look for peace when travelling through Paris. They’re too engrossed buzzing about in a whirlwind of buying, snapping, smiling into cameras and ticking off formidable lists of places to see and do. Yes, queue with tour groups if you must but at least once and a while take the alternate route and set your own pace. Hit the grass and brace yourself to just take in the air.

Why? Well for one thing, having just finished reading Kathryrn Stockett’s book, ‘The Help’-

(some of you may have recently seen the film of the same title), I came away with a conclusive quote of impassioned wisdom which I thought I’d pass onto good people like yourselves.

…”‘You is kind. You is smart. You is important…”

Three very deserving reasons why we should lay low and just look to the sky when in Paris. Take a worm’s eye view of a Paris sky and embark on your green island in any one of the Paris Gardens to soak up some tres chic air and recapture the space we need and feel.

What does that feel like? I’m glad you asked…

You probably already know that Paris has been historically a city where many Peace Treaties have been signed for the benefit of mankind. The Treaty of Peace in Paris (way back in 1783) ended the American Revolutionary War with Great Britain and The Paris Peace Accords was signed to end the Vietnam War in 1973. There’s a whole lot more peace since then.

Just goes to prove that a slice of Paris peace couldn’t do you any harm at all.

Au Revoir,

Best Wishes until next time,

Therese Waddell

copyright@2011 Therese Waddell

Awaken to Holidays in France

Bonjour my friends,

What are we doing wrong to have allowed August to creep up upon us so quickly? Everything is flying passed at a phenomenal rate and the world makes you crazy, unless of course we are on holidays.

The French awaken to summer holidays in August and flee Paris for the south- to “escape to the country” (as my dear friend Kerry would exclaim in a full bodied British accent) and soak up the warmth and magnificent colour of her landscapes.

You too could head for something like this…

on the way to Castres in the Midi Pyrenees region in south western France for instance. No wonder the French head south. This was where for my french awakening, the true colours of France came shining through.

My “Road To Provence Quilt” commemorates the supreme colours of the South of France.

The pattern is available at www.quiltingthejourney.com for anyone interested in either buying the pattern or have me make a quilt for you or a friend.

Go on. Experience France in all its summery glory in August and in the meantime, let YOUR colours shine through this week.

In the word’s of Cyndi Lauper,

“I see your true colours and that’s why I love you

So don’t be afraid to let them show,

You’re true colours

True colours

Are beautiful like a rainbow.”

Au Revoir,

Best Wishes, Therese Waddell

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copyright@2011 Therese Waddell