In the company of myself...

As much as I love writing to you guys, I hope you can appreciate there are many many stories I can't share with you that I've had while I'm over here. And, unfortunately for you, they're some of the best stories I have. They're complicated stories with a bizarre depth that make them seem like I've been cast in a movie without being consulted about that little side note. I've had a lot of really interesting adventures, and I am sorry that I can't tell you all of them here, but they're either just for me... or stories you can ask me about over a bottle of wine. This place is amazing. And weird. And different. And I'm sorry that I must be mysterious... but there must be some mystery ;)

But in short, I will say, do the strange things, be mysterious, take walks alone in the cold with pinks cheeks and a smile, take the road that looks prickly and untravelled, detour through the markets, try the strange food, hold the eye contact in a small moment, talk to the travellers, share a moment with a stranger, taste the tea, detour off the path to find the abandoned park, drink wine in the car with friends, dance till 4am, give a stranger your scarf, read in graveyards, kiss the man, talk to the woman in the old French kitchen till 2am, get too cold, get too hot, learn to cook crepes, eat too much, stand on tiptoes to meet someone new, sketch an old man with his newspaper, sit with frozen hands on a hill and watch the sun go down, get completely lost, run, scramble up the cliffside to watch the sun playing on the sea, talk to the cat in French, help set the table, marvel at the christmas lights, learn the slang this town, buy flowers, eat an entire jar of nutella, share stories with new friends in the pub, share wisdom, get so excited you can't sleep, so profoundly sad you can't think straight, miss him, forget the right words, teach her something, listen to her, learn something, learn a lot, learn from yourself, test yourself, make up fake stories to write in a paragraph on a blog, enjoy being with new friends, enjoy hearing from old friends, enjoy being alone. Really really enjoy being alone. Do a lot. Do nothing. Discover everything. Seize a lot of moments. Get exhausted from all the seizing. Keep seizing anyway, you're only half way through...

By now I've probably established how emotionally/mentally/physically draining/enriching this experience has been and, thus, I often need to escape, run away and take myself somewhere to just be in the company of myself. Since I'm such a wonderful date, I take myself on spectacular galloping adventures to amazing places to retrive little lost parts of my soul and just generally enjoy doing whatever I feel like. The following are two of the places I have gone on these mini solo-adventures to and captured little photolitical moments of to share with you right now :)

Place one: The French Graveyard

I know it seems morbid on first glance, but I love graveyards.
They're one of the only places that are designed to be beautiful
but where you actually have a pretty good chance of being alone with your thoughts.
If you can find me another place like that, then suggest away.

Or perhaps to get lost in oddly suitable books

For a while I just sat and looked at everything and sat thinking in the dying sunlight

I also sat there until I'd finished a poem that had been unfinished for ages and until I had pins and needles

Mmm. This was a good afternoon.

Place two: The abandoned vacant lot/park

I went for a walk alone today through Marignane. It was FREEZING. Seriously like, the air was biting at my cheeks, I could only breath through my mouth and my lungs were burning by the end of the walk, my hands were numb and slow to clench but I was so happy kicking along the little streets going wherever I wanted. I reached a point where I had a choice of going down a road that I thought may have had a chance of increasing my chance of running into someone I wouldn't have minded seeing again, or going down an untravelled road. And, in that moment, breathing in the cold air with the wind playing with my hair, I picked the random abandoned road. I chose it for me. And it made all the difference. I found a tiny rubbly path off the main road that led to a long since abandoned spare lot, or park, or something that I had the time of my life adventuring through, balancing and jumping from pile to pile of rubble, hiding my bag under a pile of rocks and setting off running through the pine trees...

I scrambled to the top of one of the little piles of rubble and dry grass
and sat there puffed and happy

Une fleur pour vous

I made a heart for all of you to share with me :)

The sweet-grassy smell of the pine absolutely filled the part of the park where the dense trees almost blocked out the fading afternoon sun

And I could hide here forever...

No one would ever find me!

and flying solo is pretty damn good

Fin.

More stories soon.

But I thought these places were pretty.

And, even though I can't/won't share all of my stories and thoughts with you,

I will share little moments of these places with you.

And I think these places are pretty.

:)