Into the Home Stretch

It’s been gloomy, misty and cold this past week and with a true literary pathetic fallacy, it’s somewhat a reflection of my mood.
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A few days ago it hit me hard that I will be leaving this wonderful sanctuary in a little over a week. Although the draw to be with family and friends is strong, my days here have settled into a wonderful rhythm:

• breakfast served and ready when I get up
• writing in my journal or reading
• working from the late morning ( sometimes very late!) until dinner
• call to dinner around eight
• conversation with Jacques over wonderful food
• reading aloud – Jacques from Pat Barker’s Regeneration which I bought for him and me from one of his massive collection of short stories set in WW1

Who would not want to stay here when so well looked after and entertained?

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However my main focus now is a big push to get as much of my story down even if it’s drivel and will require hours of rewrites, so it will be heads down for the next week.

I did have a break this week when Jacques managed to sneak me onto a list of people in the Picardy tourist industry who were being treated to a day out to educate them about the region. The focus of the trip was around a painter called Alfred Manessier who among other things had created in the 80s the wonderful stained glass windows at a church in Abbeville which is NW of Amiens towards the coast. Among the guides for the day was his daughter who showed us his birthplace, his tomb (see picture below) and of course the windows. After lunch and 3 glasses of wine (2 bottles -1 red, 1 white – were already on the table when we got to the restaurant to be shared among each group of 6!), we were taken all the way to the coast to the Baie de Somme area. Very beautiful and I’m sure it is a wonderful beach place in the summer but it was freezing cold so we hopped out for a quick look then back on the bus and home. Had a nice wee nap on the way home –  could it have been the wine at lunch? Hmm.

This week there is another trip which I will likely go on and I would like to have a day in Paris and walk the St. Germain area but writing may not permit –  and hey, I’ll be back.

A tout a l’heure!

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