French Lessons: Create Your World Claude’s Way

 

On our trip to France  last month, my friends Judy, Lisa, and I took a jaunt to Giverny, to the whimsical gardens of impressionist painter Claude Monet.

At  his Giverny home, our tour guide explained, the artist set the scenes.

Claude didn’t sit around hoping sunflowers would pop up  outside his windows.

He planted the bold beauties.

Claude didn’t just dream about the grace of water lilies.

He created water gardens.

Monet didn’t simply wish his world would turn brilliant with yellows and blues and purples and reds.

He put them there!

Lesson here is that while it’s way cool to stumble on what you need and want in life, sometimes it doesn’t work that way.

Sometimes you need to plant it yourself before you can capture it on canvas.

Congrats to Donnie, who won the lovely Marylou Falstreau gift cards.

French Lessons: Il Pleut/It Rains!

Reflections on our trip to Paris, written by Judy Brown. This is Post Two in a series titled “French Lessons.”

It rains.  Adapt.  Be flexible.  Despite lugging our rain coats and umbrellas around, Barbara, Lisa and I coped quite well with the drizzle and downpours during our fall Paris trip.

The light sprinkle on the water surface at the garden (Jardins des Nymphaes) at Giverny actually enhanced the visual experience.  The willows were still weeping, the autumn flowers still splashed with color, and the pond now had movement that mesmerized the eye.

Life calls us to adapt to the daily drizzles and to the heavier monsoons. I recall how soon after my first child was born that she unknowingly taught me how to be flexible.  Go on a trip, cook a nice dinner, meet friends at exactly 2 pm.  Forget it.  But it was ok.

Francois, our French tour guide in Paris, took us on a whirlwind trip of the Louvre and Notre Dame. He was well versed in history, a character, and could put any chatty woman to shame.

I often directed the side conversations to learn more about French life and his life.

Francois is happily married to a younger woman from Spain, and they are hoping for their first child very soon.  They even have the conception date planned for December 24!  Hmmmm….will he also learn the same lesson?

I think he might be on a good path to being adaptable, however.

He shared with us that because his small household has 2 native languages, they split the day.  During the day they speak Spanish.  At night they switch to French.  How fair!  How flexible.  How creative! Francois did bemoan, however, that when they argue, the language agreement often fails!

The other man in our life while on our French trip was Frederic–very stately, proper, and I must say, quite good looking!

Our two hour round trip car ride with Frederic provided lots of talking time. I tried not to get too personal, but when I probed about his personal life and asked how long he had been married, he said, “Oh we forgot to get married, but we have been together for 4 years.”

Adapt.  Be creative.  Find spunky new umbrellas, buy fancy rain coats, get plaid vinyl boots. Il pleut.  It could  always rain on your plans.

Photo Above:  Lisa, Judy, and Frederic in Monet’s garden.

Below:  Barbara in her raincoat.