Ending 2011

It’s now the last day of what I can say has been the best year of my life. Penny and Hamish took us to lunch at Les Gourmets along with Rosalie and Anne-Marie. Not that we needed lunch or the (small) whisky we had at Penny’s beforehand, but how can one not see friends and loved ones when the opportunity presents? The nap that was intended got postponed when Mr. Pluchôt arrived with the rest of the wood – Renaud having said that he would bring it most likely on the very last day of the year. Pascal is still too tired, so he and Adelaïde have cancelled. Jim and Joanne will fetch us for the New Year’s party at Liliane and Renaud’s since we have the car packed and ready to depart for Amsterdam on the second – allowing ourselves tomorrow, Sunday, first to rest up and attend to all those niggly last minute things. I have made a tuna casserole and a raspberry pie for tonight.

We had a fun and lovely dinner at Jim and Joanne’s two nights ago. It was just the four of us and was perfect. We started out with negronis. The evening before that, David and Marguerite had a cocktail party. This was a champagne evening along with Yvonne, Susie, Liselotte, John and Étienne at Cresson. And previous to that, we took Barbara and Natacha to Les Gourmets for dinner.

For Christmas itself, we had a quiet day basically packing and moving things into storage. The evening before, we went to the church for the midnight mass. Not knowing when it was to start, we were the first to arrive, but a few of the singers were practicing in the balcony. We had again completely forgotten about the occasion, but when I was talking to Peter and Shirley from London, I suddenly remembered. We were not quite completely wasted on margaritas, and perhaps they helped to keep us warm in the frigid building. The service along with the costumed children in procession to the crèche and the warmth of the attendees were charming. The moment when we are all asked to greet those near us was especially moving.

Earlier we had spoken by phone to Rosalie in San Francsico and to Marlowe in Palm Springs. And on Christmas, we were able to talk to Rix, Gin, Woody, Cosmo and Chloë; later, to John in Glasgow. And as we were completely devoted to making final arrangements for the farm, it turned out to be the only occasion that we would have been able to get together with Guy and Audrey. So later in the day, they swung by from Tourtour, and we followed them then to their place in Salernes. They are most enjoyable.

Boxing Day was quiet and non-social. The temperatures drop now below freezing through the night and early morning, but the days have been blissfully sunny and surprisingly warm, and during the new moon days, the stellar canopy at night has been dazzling – allowing us a final appreciation here of ‘earth and the stars’. Mid-week, Marionette would not start, and we were back to one car again. We did get her working by the following day and then immediately put her up on blocks in the garage – twice in fact as the garage door would not close once she was elevated and not quite in far enough.

And this is it. If 2012 can be half as wonderful as 2011 has been, I will be more than joyful. My wishes now are that each and everyone enjoys a happy and healthy New Year – one in which, in addition, our global difficulties can become addressed maturely and constructively. People are at heart and for the vast most part lovely and well-meaning. May we move forward with that realisation and discover the ways and means to honour the general best in us in manners not yet conceived or dared!

Epilogue: the party

France-Musique was broadcasting a 1951 Metropolitan Opera production of Die Fledermaus when Jim and Joanne arrived to take us to Liliane and Renaud’s for the New Year’s Eve jaarwisseling. Both my tuna casserole and raspberry pie were successes, and the foods overall were a complete treat along with a Puligny-Montrachet to begin with, other wines and the Veuve Clicquot closer to midnight. Replacing Strauss was the the Tord-Gustavsen Trio when we first arrived. Later it was Joe Cocker and Eminem, and it all worked. Party-gal Joanne was, as usual, a complete life-of-the-party.

After the four of us, the Americans, Gilles and Marie were the first to appear. They had been lovers in their late teens but had then gone their separate ways. Marie may have gone through a marriage but ended up living alone. Gilles may have done the same and decided many years later that he wanted to re-find Marie. Eventually he did locate her, and they have been happily together now for the last three or four years.

Liliane’s brother Jean-François and sister Sylvie were additional guests as were Marie-Claude and Juan-Carlos (originally from Peru). Everyone was charming and delightful. I was repeatedly struck over the beauty of both Liliane and Sylvie as well as the electrical charisma between all three siblings – children of our beloved Micheline and Nicolas. It was a feast alone to witness their interactions.

Often Richard and I would follow the radio or TV for the ending of the old year and beginning of the new, but these media were absent, and instead it was a relaxed evening of banter, eating, drinking and dancing and one of the most enjoyable and perfect New Year’s Eve celebrations I have yet known. Such wonderful people; such wonderful times. Our pagan year in the Provence has now ended, and tomorrow we begin our journey northward. May the happiness I feel be shared by as many as possible!