Maybe it's something about the angle of the light, or the time in the morning but at 7:50 a.m. out of nowhere I'm taken back to 1986 Lacoste France. Every morning Anne and I would meet on the cobbled stone hill outside my abode. The sun would have just come up over Bonnieux and the village was still in that early morning shade broken up by the long lines of light through the trees. We would set off on our trek for the next village, Lumiere, where we stopped for our routine cafe au lait and croissant - pronounced cwa-saunn as the girl in one of the many French bakerys informed me. She wouldn't give it to me until I pronounced it correctly. I am grateful for her persistence because I've never forgotten the proper pronounciation since.
I loved those morning walks. We were two young girls trying to find our place in the world as well as the meaning of art and life. I was there after an eye opening divorce (yes, I have been married before...when I was what now seems very young) and my first year of college in a study abroad at the Lacoste School of the Arts. My world and fantasy of how my life should be had just been shaken up to say the least. Anne and Chris (who was at the time attending school in
the neighboring town of Aix-en-Provence) were in the beginnings of what would become a very long, long distance relationship which I'm happy to say finally ended (or should I say began) in marriage 5 years ago after 18 years of dating. Anne and I discussed relationships, food addictions, dreams, hopes, struggles and art as we walked every weekday morning. It was my favorite part (along with the U2 concert in Marsailles-another story altogether) of the six week studies I did in this little village below the chateau de Marquis de Sade. How wonderful it is to wake up in Salt Lake City and for a brief moment be back on the road to Lumiere...
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