“Can you feel it?” Remi asked. We were standing in our courtyard with glasses of wine in hand at the end of the day and faces turned upwards. Because we can often read each others thoughts, I knew what he meant. “Um-hmm,” I responded. The shift had already started to occur.
August 15th is a holiday for the L’Assomption de Marie in France, just as in Italy it is the Ferragosto. In Provence, the date holds a more practical meaning – the end of the big vacation period when the highways are declared a “journée noir” with traffic jams that can stretch out over hundreds of kilometers, an event which is usually accompanied by a change in temperature. Often it is then that the big storms will roll in as if to thunder-clap proclaim, “L’été est bientôt fini! It is time for you all to go back to your workaday lives!”
But these photos were taken before, right when the season was at its zenith.
Remi wanted to retrace some of our favorite spots here in the Alpilles for a project that he is working on (that I will tell you about soon) and asked if I wanted to come along. Especially as it was predicted to be yet another day when the temperatures were expected to reach 100°F, the prospect of seeing beautiful scenery while ensconced in the only air-conditioning available (our car), I responded with a cheerful, “Yes, but let’s take the boys too.” I think that by that point, we all were a little tired of being closed up, literally, in our shuttered home in retreat from the spindly heat, a little outing would do us good.
I was right. I love our Provence.
The light was slicing bright and the air so dry that it seemed to hover slightly over the parched yellow grasses. The sky was too blue, also just out of reach and we all felt the need to retreat into patches of shade from time to time. A deserved break from the zig-zag lines of a brash summer day.
I was shooting blind, unable to see my camera’s reflections, aided by Remi’s estimates about what my settings should be. And so these photos all look too stark to me – slightly unreal – and just as I have been longing for relief from the heat, so too am I ready for a little kindness on the eyes.
Happily, it is here. Or the promise of it is. August 15th did not let us down this year and that shift that we sensed is upon us, leaving us scrambling to bring in the cushions during a surprise evening rain yesterday and shifting our timing so as to get back from the garden before nightfall falling faster. Sunsets have returned. I feel like I can think again but have loved these languorous last days.
Instead of the song of the cigales, I can now just barely discern a quiet ticking of time numbered.
It is quite something, our connections to the seasons, isn’t it? Apparently, our clocks are not so internal after all.
I love your photos – I just inserted a plate of ripe peaches into them, for some reason! Hope you took a picnic! It all just looks so beautiful, the land, the sky, the dogs! Thank you!
It is strange how keenly some of us feel the shift in the seasons. I am noticing it too. The light has lost its harshness and is starting to turn to amber again. I am loving it as I am loving the cooler night breezes and the rain we had again last Sunday, This summer has been nothing short of miraculous – although July made up for that by being pretty harsh.
Nice, Heather .. few "Family Outings" are enjoyable as those to nature .. you've shared beautifully. Even on Kauai, we enjoy subtle changes as the Summer months plod lazily along .. but definitive shifts in weather and scenery are certainly a treat and majestic display of nature's glory. Mahalo for taking us on a drive through incomparable Provence !
Aloha,
Bill
http://www.kauai-to-paris.com
…the zig-zag lines of a brash summer day. What a beautiful description of the summer we've had, Heather.
Great post! I'm in the Languedoc, and it was/is the same here. That subtle shift, the harbinger of autumn. No! Not yet! The cigales are silent, the tourists are loading their roof racks, the only sound is the "plop" of a ripe fig falling onto my terrasse……..
bonnie
We do shift with the seasons………in song and attitude!This summer went by too fast for me………..no sea or pool to sit by.No this or THAT that is defiantly SUMMER to me.We do have the HEAT now……………but I'm not complaining as that allows us to eat outside at night without FREEZING!
Happy to see those furry BOYS in the shade!GORGEOUS CREATURES!
XOXO
How I love your pictures. I can feel the air hovering over those fields. I can hear the blue of the sky.
je t'embrasse,
Glad you had a good ride in the AC.
Summer doesn't feel quite like summer without a walk in a dry field, seeing bright hot sun or shade that barely feels cooler. Here I felt a tiny speck of autumn recently after reading about back to school being near. Commerce can ruin a good summer seasonal flow.
Heather a lovely post about the change of seasons and how they come upon us!
Autumn is my favorite of all four, even more so than Springtime!
xoxo
Karena
The Arts by Karena
This time of year reminds me of one of my all time favorite songs "Sure on the Shining Night" by Samuel Barber, a poem by James Agee. That line "High summer holds the earth. Hearts all whole." just speaks to me. I've included one of the best recordings of this song. (there's a second song following it, also wonderful.)
Sure on this shining night
Of star made shadows round,
Kindness must watch for me
This side the ground.
The late year lies down the north.
All is healed, all is health.
High summer holds the earth.
Hearts all whole.
Sure on this shining night I weep for wonder wand'ring far
alone
Of shadows on the stars.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xWFfNZvpmk