France

Un nouveau chapitre …

by Kathryn on January 21, 2012


In 12 days, I’m moving to France.  As I pack up my things, I’ve been thinking back to Julia Child’s book, My Life in France, where she recounts her arrival in France in 1948 with her husband Paul.  They arrived in France by boat, and brought their car over from the USA, along with several large crates of furniture and household items.  When they came back to the USA, they brought with them almost all of their French kitchen acquisitions.

I’ve amassed a rather splendid collection of Asian cookware over the years, but it is not going to France.  It is all remaining in storage in the USA.  I have no furniture and no vehicles.  They have all been sold.  In contrast, my move across the ocean will be much lighter than the Childs’ move.

I’ve been reflecting a lot on how I have a new set of priorities these days.  Things that were important to me two years ago don’t fit in my present anymore.  I don’t know how this chapter goes, but I look forward to finding out.

Tagged as: expatriate, France, life, personal

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Correspondances

by Kathryn on October 21, 2010


Correspondances

La Nature est un temple où de vivants piliers
Laissent parfois sortir de confuses paroles;
L’homme y passe à travers des forêts de symboles
Qui l’observent avec des regards familiers.

Comme de longs échos qui de loin se confondent
Dans une ténébreuse et profonde unité,
Vaste comme la nuit et comme la clarté,
Les parfums, les couleurs et les sons se répondent.

II est des parfums frais comme des chairs d’enfants,
Doux comme les hautbois, verts comme les prairies,
— Et d’autres, corrompus, riches et triomphants,

Ayant l’expansion des choses infinies,
Comme l’ambre, le musc, le benjoin et l’encens,
Qui chantent les transports de l’esprit et des sens.

— Charles Baudelaire

Tagged as: France, French, poetry

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