Wednesday, June 27, 2007 - Life in the South of France

I have barely seen my husband for the past 13 months due to the installation of a super computer at his place of work. He had so much overtime left over from last year that we are happily in the South of France for 5 long weeks. We are just lucky to have a wonderful house here, and we are kicked back and doing as little as possible for the time being.

What is there to say about being in Provence? The sky is almost always a clear blue, the sun shines just about all the time, and this year for a change there has actually been some rain so things are greener than normal and we still have grass in our yard. The lavender is close to being in full bloom, the people are friendly, there’s not that much traffic (yet), and it is not blazing hot….the mistral is currently blowing and the wind is downright cool. It is a little slice of heaven being here.

For entertainment this year besides two dogs, we brought along a borrowed complete set of DVD’s of the TV show Six Feet Under. We have done nothing but watch the Fishers since we’ve been here, and I cannot recommend this series highly enough. Take out a 2^nd mortgage and buy these DVD’s. I had no real appreciation for the quality of American TV until I moved away from it, and thank you Liz for recommending this show. The characters are deeply flawed, realistically human, and it was just great to go back to L.A. if only on a computer screen which is our TV substitute here in France. I will be thinking about Ruth, Nate, David, Claire and Brenda for a long time to come. Somehow they became my friends in some kind of twisted way and in reflection I was just deeply moved by them all. My German husband wants to know if there is really this much sex and pot being smoked in America. I don’t know the answer to this but probably so in some circles. I’m moving on next to the Sopranos.

We have our friend’s dog along with us on this trip, the lovely Laika who is sweet and gentle and we love her like she’s ours. She puts herself to bed every night around 9 p.m. (I have to remember to ask her owners if this is their regular bedtime!) and she seems to be having a good time here. She and Uben do at least 2 hours a day of adventure walks and swims and though neither one of them are very stellar in the water, she does love to play with us in the lake as long as it is not too deep. She snores like a bear at night but she’s a great watchdog and alerts us to everything….neighbors emptying their trash, others walking by with their dogs, garbage trucks coming by, and she also barks at certain noises that the computer makes which makes us laugh. She seems to think one of the computer noises is a doorbell. We are happy that she’s here with us and she’s been some great company for Uben.

More on Provence as the spirit moves me.