Patricia Sands

Author

living in the south of France

Ten guilty pleasures … in France …

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If it’s Friday, it must be France …

Bonjour! I’ve been having such a fabulous time at Jess Witkins’s HAPPINESS PROJECT that I simply haven’t been able to leave.

Today she has my Friday “France” post featured on her “Guilty Pleasures” page so click here and take a blog hop over to join us for a little decadent indulgence. After all, it is Friday, so we’ll have the weekend to recover!

Don’t forget to leave a comment at the Happiness Project and your name will be entered to win a free e-copy of The Bridge Club! See you there!

Bon weekend tout le monde!

Please don’t think for a moment that those ten items are my only indulgences in France … far from it …  They’re just the ones that we’re talking about today. IMHO, one can never have too many guilty pleasures … and, seriously, let’s just drop the “guilty“. Care to share some of yours here? Slide down to the comment section below and spill! I can’t wait to hear from you!

World Oceans Day … oops, I forgot to click publish!

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I was caught up in a wonderful graduation day yesterday (Friday) for the daughter of dear friends. She received combined MBA/Law degrees plus an award for top marks in both. It was indeed a day to celebrate! Beginning with a beautiful ceremony at Convocation Hall, in the magnificent grounds of the University of Toronto, we lunched while awards were presented, then rushed home to shower, change and drive back downtown to the terrace of The Fifth for dinner and party-time!

In fact I was having such a great time celebrating, I forgot to move this post out of draft by hitting “Publish”. So here we are … a day late. But, never mind, let’s celebrate World Oceans Day every day and do our part as best we can.

If it’s Friday, it must be France …

The Mediterranean is a sea. A beautiful, historical body of water that has a unique magical aura. In fact, connected to the Atlantic Ocean through the Strait of Gibraltor, the Med (as it is affectionately known) is defined as a sea because it is mainly surrounded by land.

June 8th is World Oceans Day so please click this link take a minute to visit their website. I should have been talking about this weeks ago but, to be honest, in my state of *finish the MS total self-absorption*, I wasn’t aware of it.

In fact, it was my friend Tele Aadsen’s blog that gave me the reminder. As well as a writer, she fishes commercially in Alaska and no one in my world  is in a better  position to speak on this topic than Tele. She also has a video in this post that she shot as five whales accompanied them on one of their outings. If you haven’t already visited her blog, do it now. You’ll be very glad you did.

Tele also introduces us to Roz Savage whose memoir, Rowing The Atlantic, describes her 500 days at sea in a 23-foot rowboat. CAN YOU IMAGINE? I am always fascinated by individuals who take up such challenges and can’t wait to read about it.

Fellow writer/blogger Nancy J. Nicholson and her husband live on their sailboat and are cruising the Caribbean at the moment. Needless to say, they have a strong commitment to doing all they can to support the ongoing work of preserving our oceans. You can find her here.

In Toronto, we live on Lake Ontario and last weekend saw the annual lakeside clean-up by everyone who cares to give a day and help take care of the lake shore. An annual event, the turnout is always impressive – rain or shine!

Late afternoon view from our balcony in Toronto

Last summer we lived in Antibes on the shore of the Mediterranean for almost five months. Living with that awesome view of the Med and the hills and mountains beyond was a very special experience, we’ll never forget.

The view from our terrace in Antibes.

We never tired of the view or of spending as much time as we possibly could hiking the coastal trails, enjoying the catch of the day, or doing beach-time. Here are a few of my favourite Med shots.

Hiking the Cap D’Antibes
Secluded cove – hiking Cap D’Antibes
Overlooking St.-Jean-Cap-Ferrat from Eze Village
Sailing class in Antibes
The Med – driving through the hills of Corsica
Breathtaking Corsican landscape
Corsica – Marine Preserve – can it get any more blue than this?
Plage Beau Rivage – our favourite beach in Nice
A calanque near Marseille
Calanques – between Marseille and Cassis
Overlooking Cassis from La Route Des Cretes
Sanary-Sur-Mer
Sanary-Sur-Mer – fishing boats
Plage Des Graniers – St. Tropez
A gem – Plage Mala, Cap D’Ail

Okay, okay … I’ll stop. I had a great time sorting through my photos for those and could go on and on …

How far do you live from the sea or an ocean or any body of water? Let’s make a commitment to do all we can to conserve and protect our rivers, lakes and oceans today and every day.

A slightly different slant today …

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If it’s Friday, it must be France …

Lucky me! Author and well-known choc-o-holic, work-o-holic, mom-o-holic, Stephanie Keyes invited me to be part of her fabulous Spring Author Series and I’m over there talking about … yes, what else … France! Well, she asked me about vacations and travel so what was I to do?

Please pop over and visit with us there and while you are at it you might want to read the posts of the terrific group of writers that have participated. They are an interesting and most entertaining party bunch  collection!

Stephanie is going to fly to England to be a featured speaker at the amazing literary day, A SUMMER AUDIENCE, planned and being hosted by the LoveAHappyEnding.com crew in Tetbury on June 16th. If you are in the UK, try your best to attend. I’ll be there in spirit!

I know this may be starting to sound repetitive and boring but I am making headway to the final page of my WIP. I can see the outline of the words “T H E  E N D” in the glow of the light at the end of the tunnel … yoohooo … I’m coming …

I don’t remember the ending of The Bridge Club taking me this long but with good ol’ selective memory I’ve no doubt banished those thoughts, if that was the case.

For your viewing pleasure …

Rue Obscure, Villefranche-Sur-Met

The bar in La Colombe D’Or, St. Paul de Vence
Hmmm – wonder if our budget could handle this!

Bon Weekend tout le monde!

La Grande Nomade …

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If it’s Friday, it must be France …

Yes … I’m still hard at the WIP … so since I can’t get away from it, I thought I would bring you into the story with me for a moment. Oh come on! No eye rolls! It’s just for a moment …

By way of introduction – This sculpture was installed at the end of the ramparts in Antibes in 2007. It was taken into a private collection at one point and the outcry was so loud when it was gone that it was replaced. We overlooked it from our terrace last summer. Magic … day or night … just magic …

The setting for this scene in my story is at night. Of course in the WIP there are no photos … only the images created by my own letters …

Patricia Sands Photography

At the end of the ramparts, they stepped inside the white stainless steel sculpture that faced the sea and dominated the harbor of Port Vauban. Lit from the bottom in the unfolding darkness, there was a sense of a shimmering diaphanous embrace.

“I’ve been mesmerized by this from my terrace,” Katherine murmured. “It’s as if  he’s a guardian …  almost like a mirage from a distance.”

“This part of the ramparts is Bastion Saint-Jaume. Originally constructed in the 1700’s, it was blown up by the Germans when they retreated in 1944 and rebuilt according to the original plans,” Nick said, ever the historian.

Photo by http://www.casa-infos.fr/node/54

“It’s so unusual …  almost magical … ” Katherine studied the outline of a person squatting, arms around knees, constructed entirely of letters.

 “La Grande Nomade … but tourists refer to it as the Man of Letters … for obvious reasons,” Nick continued. “Oddly, the Spanish sculptor’s name is Jaume Plensa …”

 Katherine smiled at the coincidence.

Nick’s voice softened, reflecting the intimacy he craved. “His philosophy behind the work is that letters are like bricks. They help us to construct our thoughts. I read an interview where he expressed his feeling that our skin is permanently and invisibly tattooed with the text of our life experiences and then someone comes along … a friend, a lover … who is able to decipher these tattoos.”

 Biting her lip, Kat looked out over the calm sea. “The text of this year of my life would call for quite the tattoo.”

Photo by http://yaellecaplan.blogspot.ca/2011/08/la-grande-nomade.html
Patricia Sands Photography

Are you able to get a good enough sense of La Grande Nomade from these photos? What do you think of Plensa’s philosophy about letters?

It’s a long weekend in Canada and the weather is beautiful in Toronto – Victoria Day on Monday or, as it’s ‘fondly’ referred to up here “May two-four”. I’m taking tomorrow off from writing. Woohoo!  We’re going to Mosport with some of our children and grandchildren to watch our son, Sasha, compete in his auto racing division. Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, I wish you all a Bon Weekend!