It was a Sunday and we all knew it and needed it. Remi and I had picked up our hard-working friends Marc and Bettina in Nimes and then headed up through the winding hills to Uzès. Uzès, how I love thee! Ben knows. He loves it too. But it is in Winter when I prefer it as the town, one of the most beautiful in the South of France, is positively empty.
Ah, save for at Terroirs, where we grabbed the last outdoor table on the terrace. The gentlemen gave the ladies the view on the Place aux Herbes and backs against the (very much needed) space heaters. We did our best to settle in the dogs and then it was time to consider with anticipation how to give ourselves over to a similarly floppy relaxed abandon.
We puzzled and bantered over the simple yet tempting menu with the charming waiter who leaned on our table and wished that he could join us for a glass of the very nice local wine that he had just poured into our ready glasses. Decisions were made, then changed until promises of shared bites were offered.
I was tired, coming off of a week of not sleeping well. But one of the many aspects of being with our long-time friends is that they take us as we are. There is no need to put on a show or to pretend to be other. So I felt free to be quiet.
The conversation burbled on around me like little musical notes dancing off the staff. I let my eyes do the talking, taking little snapshots of the view from our table, my camera resting otherwise in my lap. Our food arrived just as my stomach was starting to rumble and I enjoyed my delicious gratin du jour, the cheese bubbling over smoky eggplant to warm me up from the inside so that I no longer needed the polar fleece blanket placed with consideration on the arm of my chair.
We all knew our good fortune at being able to eat outside in February and so we stayed. A second bottle of wine was ordered as it was sold à la ficelle, literally by the string so that you paid only for the level of how much you drank. Because honestly, we just wanted to linger, to pull the moment like the sweet taffy it was.
We were amongst the very last to leave (that was our table at far left) and certainly no one rushed us to go. How quiet the Place was now. Full of Winter.
All the better to take a post-dining stroll, an institution in France.
And when that perambulation happens to be in Uzes…
…well, your eyes will feast as well as your belly has.
Sunday, sweet Sunday…
…I always find a home in you.
Terroirs Restaurant
5 Place aux Herbes
30700 Uzès
Tel. : 04 66 03 41 90
PS. Thank you to everyone from Remi (and me too of course) over the many, many congratulatory comments and emails about the publication of “his” French stamp! You are a lovely group of people, I have to say…
I love that you take the dogs everywhere with you. But, that is so European isn't it? I take mine too and have to explain that they are my children and must be allowed inside. What gorgeous photos, Heather. Even in February it is glorious. much love, darling…
"Full of winter". I loved that. I can relate to it. I did not have time to comment about Remi's stamp but please tell him congratulations from me. I am sure it warms your heart when his wonderful work is acknowledged. On a different note, thank you for the link. I did enjoy seeing Malta through a stranger's eyes.
"Full of Winter." How I love that phrase and the olive(?) branches against the red shutter. Quiet colors made peaceful rather than melancholy by your words. Merci beaucoup.
Chere Jacqueline,
Merci pour votre remarquablement articulé (en ce qui concerne les forces artistiques de Heather) annonce. Est-ce que le terme correct pour «posting» en français?
Voulez-vous s'il vous plaît joindre à ceux d'entre nous qui ont été encourageant Heather à écrire, dans sa voix unique et sa sensibilité très distinctifs, de simplement s'asseoir et d'écrire le livre qu'elle a évidemment besoin d'écrire pour ses admirateurs?
Très sincèrement,
David Terry (big fan of Heather's writing and photography, obviously)
http://www.davidterryart.com
Just today, a friend from Berlin who came to visit (actually she's a real red head… in mind and hair colour!) and surprisingly she talked about the idea of being taken as we are and of how important it is to relax in the comany of friends…I very much liked this aspect in your post!
Concerning Uzès, I am sure you know Josephine Ryan, antiques dealer and author of many interior design books. She bought a little house in Uzès and renovated it during a long time. ( I think it is now available for rent in season)
In one of her books she told the anecdote of how she decided for this house in Uzès: The old Waterboiler in the utility room had a brandname on it. It was the same as her french mothers family name: "Le Mercier". She said: "Mothers can't be wrong" and bought the house.
lingering and pulling the afternoon hours like taffy – very nice.
another place to add to my list of must see.
XXX
Ah, the Bliss and Ease of a true Sunday. Lovely.
I found your blog recently and cannot tell you what pleasure you give me every day. I grew up in Nimes and have lived half my life in Provence and half in Britain, where I am now. Looking at your offerings every day brings back floods of memories, and you seem uncannily to see beauty exactly where we found it too, in little architectural details, ruined buildings and pure skies! You capture the light so beautifully, like in the blog by the Vaccares, or dusk in Gordes, and we too have been in Uzes in winter, with a deserted Place aux Herbes, so magical.
We too have seen a number of old houses where we have dreamt of how we could restore them and live happily everafter, or tried to imagine what it had been like to live there, and the Cevennes that you pictured so poetically.
You are such GOOD people, rescuing Kipling, your posts on adopting him, then one year on, brought a lump in my throat (we do the same with cats!). I can't stop being amazed at every new offering from you, here we are, totally different background, age group, life stories, and yet we are absolutely on the same "wavelength"!
A thousand thank yous and please carry on enchanting us!
Beautiful beautiful Heather!!! I love Uzes! Your darling doggies look so very happy!
If I read your blogposts it feels as I am on a trip for a few moments!
Thank you so much for your fabulous posts again and again!
xx
Greet
but on a show, pretention…so tired of that. But be as you are is not very accepted by most of the people (at least to my experience) and you can feel so lucky to have these friends where you can "feel free to be quiet" (love that too)