Cardinal Event
Many years ago, when I was a young, single mother, I took my daughters, Jennifer and Meredith, on an ambitious road trip from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to Booth Bay Harbor, Maine — a 15-hour, 930-mile drive. It was August, 1976, and Jennifer was nine and Meredith was six.…
The beginning: Jacques’ Castle
My first trip to France with John was not long after we met and he asked me to go to Paris for New Year’s, an invitation he didn’t need to repeat. I loved Paris; I was 16 years old, an exchange student, when it became my favorite city…
Chercher la maison
Our weeklong class for artists in September went off well. After this, our fourth trip, we were even more seduced by the Périgord’s grey-green valleys; softly eroded yellow limestone cliffs; wide sinuous rivers; gently rolling farmland; and its slow pace of life. The following year, in the late…
Le Pouget
It’s the name of our hamlet of three houses or the “lieu-dit” in French. Le Pouget doesn’t mean anything, so it must be a family name. No one seems to know. It’s also our address: Le Pouget, St Avit-Sénieur, France. That’s it. No street or house number. We…
Then came Patrick
We continued on the house and worked long, hard days, often leaving after sunset, too tired to do anything but find an open restaurant, dinner and a bottle of wine. Friends visited to check our progress and stayed to help, pitching in with the day’s project, however dirty…