France

Highlights:

Staying in a Chateau, visiting small villages and just walking, catching up with friends, food (including fried Camembert for lunch), dinner in my friends apartment in Paris.



The Chateau

My First Few Days

I found myself in a dreamlike state for the first few days of my trip.  This was partly due to the jet lag I was now suffering but more so that I was not able to comprehend, or perhaps more accurately I was not allowing myself to discover that I was in France.  It was only a day ago that I had finished packing up my life, addressing all of my paperwork and said my goodbyes.  The problem was my mind was caught between the past and the future.  I was thinking about the life that I had left behind, which was magnified because I was travelling alone and therefore not bringing a tangible reminder of that life (in the form of a travel companion.  Do not get me wrong, I had my memories, which are very dear to me, but it was the lack of continuity to the present that I was feeling.  When I was not thinking about the life that I had just stepped out of, I was thinking about the one that I was about to experience but more specifically I was thinking about everything that I had to organise.  I was compressing the next 6 months into a stream of tasks and functions that required me to think about each and what I must do.  I had to let go and experience the now.  While I was not able to fully let go during my time in France, there was a glimmer of hope.  We were staying in a Chateau in the north of France, visiting stunning little villages with cobble stone streets that seemed to blend perfectly into the surrounding countryside, and eating amazing food.  During this time I started to smile at simple scenes, small details began to give me warmth.  Perhaps it was the pattern formed in the cobbled road, perhaps it was how the sun was casting shadows on the stone buildings, or just sitting in the garden of the Chateau, in short I had begun to embrace the now and moments which I so dearly yearned for where once again presenting themselves to me.  Precious gifts were no longer going unnoticed.  How far will my journey take me?