My French Life or.....? by Julianna Rowe

 I saw this marvelous book at one of my client's homes. I gently took it from its quiet resting place, leaning on another book named Bloom. Humm, maybe that was a secret set-up code from beyond (for me!) I opened it and found my eyes tearing up. I thought to myself, "What? What?" In other words, what is causing you to cry?? I answered myself calmly. "I never had a French Life, and I felt like I was looking right into one. Such an appealing sight as I stood alone beside the old English brick fireplace. It was like I should have or could have and still wished to." The tears were from a life of struggle and survival and not in France. I'm not saying this to bemoan myself because I've found and created my forms of life in France. I have always gravitated toward French Country when decorating. I am a total romantic, whether it is a white French mantel or a black iron chopping table. When a creative person like me cannot travel to the real deal, she brings the real deal home. I've accomplished a lot in my life. Sculpting, sewing, jewelry making, writing, woodworking, painting, and drawing, all while raising five children, working two and three jobs to provide them with everything they need for a happy family home, not sure they will agree on the word happy, and always balancing where to put any leftover funds. I won't laugh at that statement; no one except a single Mom with five children would understand.

None of this is to say I wouldn’t like to be walking on that rainy day wearing black tights, a black dress, a black trench, and a black umbrella, just as in the picture.

While holding this book by Vicki Archer, I paused to read a paragraph that caught my eye, or was my eye sent to this perfect page, the perfect section just for me this day? So, to set this up, I will tell you She and her husband purchased a small 50-acre farm unseen. Below are her thoughts as they come upon it for the first time......

"The farmhouse in view was not in line with the one in my imagination: What stood before us was derelict and in total disrepair. My excitement never faltered for a moment - these were mere hurdles to be jumped. My son, Paddy, whispered, "This is it, Mum. We've found it" My heart was hammering in my chest, tears filled my eyes, my ability to speak vanished and the momentous truth shook me like nothing before. If you believe there can be a moment in time when everything in your life changes, then for me, this moment had arrived.

I felt that way when each of my children were born.  And once, when I was fifteen, I spent some time on a ranch in Jacksonhole, Wyoming, and the Ski Resort town of Pinedale, Wyoming. I have never lost the desire to live there, not ever. Otherwise, no moments such as this family experienced. Their experience came through the book like a spiritual awakening directly at me. Thus, the tears. Of joy, sadness, loss, hope, or maybe I lived in France on that farm (Mas de Barnard, a Provencal mas, farmhouse) in a past life! Yeah, that is probably it.

Labels: le coup de foundre (love at first site)