1. I am back in my absolute favorite place in the world.
2. I’ve been spending summers in Paziols every year for the past ten years. In fact, last summer was the first since 2007 that I didn’t set foot in the little town, and boy did I miss it. We used to run a summer program here for French language immersion, and while the program isn’t running anymore, the Country Boy and I decided to take a week to visit our old friends and haunts. I’ll admit it’s a bit strange, without the kids, not in the least because I can get up at 7:30 in the morning and go wandering all on my own without worrying about picking up six baguettes on my way back.
3. This is a wine region, but it’s far more rustic than Bordeaux or Bourgogne. The vines tend to be trained on one another rather than on stakes, and they tumble along the landscape any which way they like. They’ll be harvested at the end of next month, so they’re currently soaking up all the hot sun they can get.
4. We’re only about 30 minutes from the Mediterranean, something I always forget, both because we never brought the kids there (30 minutes is still too far when you have 28 kids to transport and only two nine-seat vans) and because the landscape looks nothing like the region of the Mediterranean where I used to live, along the French Riviera. The topography here is dry and tends towards grayish green as opposed to the lushness you find closer to Cannes. I can’t get enough of it, though.
5. The church with its skeleton bell tower is one of the only parts of the town that you can glimpse from afar. For me, it’s like a homing beacon. I don’t think I’ll ever tire of seeing it.