“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.
Ours has been as brutal as yours normally are, Loree! So yes, that gorgeous, gorgeous amber light at sunset is most welcome.
I am happy you have had a good summer, well-deserved!
You are welcome, Mr. Facker. I know that you tend to stay up North on your visits to La Belle France and I am determined to show you that there is more than that on offer!
My parents lived in San Diego for many years and they too would track the subtle changes in the weather.
Sending my Best to you in Hawaii,
H.
You know! My goodness, I wish I wasn't quite so ready for it to be over…But enough is enough! 😉
Ah, that last detail just slayed me, Bonnie. A fig tree! There is one on my path where I walk the boys in the evenings and I have been steadily watching its dails progression towards ripeness. Not ready yet…yours must be a happier fig!
And I remember when we lived in the heart of Arles, we would hear the rolling of suitcase wheels especially at this time of year…
I know what you mean…we did have many BBQs but have not gone to the sea once! It was just too hot to be enjoyable (for me) this year. This summer was all about just trying to keep our poor garden alive!
I do hope you get to meet the boys one day…
xoxoxox
h
Thank you friend. That blue is loud, isn't it? Looking at the photos today, I am not so happy with them! Too much contrast and not enough of the peace I felt in them. But again, merci…
Ah, I have been noticing the notebooks and pens on promotion at the grocery store but being a cranky old lady with little tolernance for noise from the village kids, I have cheered commerce's interruption in this case!
Mine too but ours is so short here, Karena. We have a really long Indian Summer and then – poof! – winter arrives. I miss having a real autumn like we do in Michigan.
Ooh, thank you! The poem is absolutely perfect. James Agee is such a wonderful poet, isn't he? I will go listen to the recording. Merci, belle amie!
The hot summers maybe changing. The breeze seems to be laser sharp cooler and leaves starting to yellow.But with beautiful landscapes like yours you will want to enjoy summer a little longer.
With fires raging in all parts of California and drought still in high pitch an early season change with rain will be a blessing for us.