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Magic Little Places
Many times as an adult I’ve had to start again. I’ve quit a relationship, a job or a country and decided to start new. As such, I have become really comfortable with putting myself out there and meeting new people. But it took a little time and effort at the start. These days I don’t…
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Stay You
There are so many things I have learned from living in France… I could write a book on it. Maybe I will. But the advice that I have taken the longest time to learn is the one that a wonderful person gave me a few years ago… he always told me reste you. It was…
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Sinking into the Moment
The days are becoming ordinary now. That inevitable threshold between the excitement of travelling to somewhere new, and the lethargy of knowing how your day will go. I go to the same café, I walk the same route, I wake up and follow the same routine and see the same view. This could be the…
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Reliving the Past Differently
Today I’m in Valbonne again. This is the third time I’m back this year, and I’m really loving it. It feels like the first time I can actually enjoy what the village has to offer. When I lived here, I was such a different person. I was so scared of everything and everyone… when I…
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From Western Australia to the Var
It’s been one week since I arrived in the southeast of France, and I don’t want to leave. I feel more than ever that this is my home, and I keep the idea of packing up again far from my mind. There are so many things that are the same between Australia and France when…
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Wisdom from the Middle of the Night
I have not been sleeping well lately. It always happens when I come here, to the south east coast of France. I wake up often in the middle of the night. Some nights I don’t sleep at all. The weather has been cool here, but I have not often worn a jacket. I feel warm…
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Some Places Call to Us
Do you think that walls have voices? I think I’ve come to believe this. Certain locations, certain architecture and certain groups of people speak to us in gentle ways. Imagine, if a stone wall from a French medieval village had ears and a mouth… then what variety of things could it tell us? My visit…
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Travelling the Little Way
I wrote this while sitting in the sun in Valbonne, at a café by the square. It was a little warm, but a soft cool breeze was passing by every now and then giving me relief. My feet were wet and my shoes were dirty, but I didn’t let it bother me. The sun dried…
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Listening to the Waves
The last month, I have spent a lot of time away from the sea. From the concrete towers of Taipei to the snowy Swiss hills and grassy fields of the French countryside… every time I looked out into the distance, there was never that familiar flat horizon line to be seen. Coming back to the…
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How France Changed Me
Today, I planned to meet a friend for a casual coffee in Antibes… but that turned into lunch, which turned into a walk along the sea, which turned into a few glasses of wine later into the night. Some of the best moments in life are unexpected ones. We’ve known each other for a couple…