une pause

Tomorrow I leave the sunny haze of Paris for the (hopefully) clear blue skies of the Mediterranean. I'm hopping on the TGV (an awesomely speedy train) down to Toulon, a port town between Marseille and Nice. There I will be staying with a French couple who I don't yet know, but if their son is anything to go by, will be lovely. I'll stay there for four days and then move on to Avignon. This was a bit on a random stopover but it's a town I have always wanted to go to, and I like being able to explore a place all by myself. I'll have one night there and then continue the train journey to Zurich. My neighbour Léo will be staying there with her father and invited me along. I have no idea what to expect as I know nothing of Zurich but it should be fun!
This will also be a great week for my french, with no anglophiles around to tempt me into idle english chatter. I'm only taking one thick novel with me - it's french, and apart from that two tiny bags into which I'm struggling to pack everything. So if the coat-necessitating colds of winter return, or a pigeon poops on my one pair of pants...well, tough!

Since my lovely long and social easter weekend I have spent the last three days mostly alone. It's a been a pleasant and peaceful time, sleeping late, wandering around my neighbourhood which is leafy and calm and garnished with beds of yellow tulips. I've bought baguette and eaten it dunked in chocolat chaud for breakfast, and then in soft boiled egg for lunch, and finally with cheese for dinner. Yes I really can eat a whole one of those puppies in 12 hours! I've drunk so many cups of tea to wash down the dark, rich, and absolutely divine easter chocolate. I've stood on the nearest 'pont' over the Seine and watched the ducklings paddle around the houseboats. I've delighted in it being warm enough to wear a dress and have trotted to the park to read my book and enjoy the sun on my legs. I've watched the electoral campaigns/ scandals and debates as they have played out on tv - am finding the whole thing far more interesting than I thought I would! I've just been taking pleasure in slowing right down and being content with my little Paris bubble.
Ah, sigh, I think I might just miss her over the next week.

Okey doke, so the camera battery is charged, my refrigerator is empty and the departure hour checked and rechecked. Just need some good shut-eye now. So au revoir for the next 8 days or so, I'll leave you with one of my favourite poems...

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth
day of life and love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any-lifted from the no
of all nothing-human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

-e.e cummings