Postcards from the Pyrenees


Sometimes you find yourself in a place that just fits. You step out your door and look around you and feel this incredible belonging. In the southern mountains of France, in a countryside speckled with villages and farms and fromageries, I've found my heart.




It's an education-in-process ... not only because my grasp of French is rather limited, but because I'm finding myself without television, without internet, without distraction. This is good for me, to reacquaint myself with - well - my self. And my daughter, who now gets my undivided attention.


I see now why people find themselves in rural France ... or Italy ... buying farmhouses in tiny villages so distant from their urban homes in San Francisco, or Dallas, or Brisbane. It's a commitment to the type of lifestyle that's so hard to maintain in normal life - a slowing down that seems second nature in these places.

A life that revolves around food, and family, and friends, and walks through the forest, and sinking into chairs to read ...


The simplicity I strive for in my urban existence ...

(Can I hold on to this magic? Oh, I hope so ...)
Love, from France,
Amanda xx

Comments

  1. I closed my eyes, and for a brief moment, I was right there with you. And we were drinking tea, and it was quiet, and the mountains loomed, and our kids played.

    That was a very nice moment.

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  2. So jealous... my favorite summer ever was spent in the French countryside, and I've been dying to go back ever since!

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  3. I've loved the idea of this style of life ever since I visited the Italian countryside. Food and family (and perhaps the odd glass of wine), it's what it's all about. xx

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  4. @Victoria @ The Pursuit of Hippieness I know ... I never imagined it was everything I'd imagined ... (and it is)

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  5. Amanda thanks for the postcards! How wonderful to be living "slow" in the Pyrenees! Continue to enjoy...

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  6. I have read this post twice now to escape the everyday just for a moment. Think i might go and read it again. How wonderful!

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  7. Wow...absolutely beautiful.
    I'll have to put that on my list of places to hopefully visit one day.

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  8. Having an extended stay like this is a dream of mine. With my husband's job it is not out of the question one day to do this. It has been lovely to see your photos and words about this. It sounds perfectly simple, healthy and inspiring.

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Thanks for commenting! Amandaxx