l'été: supérieur cinq

Top five favorite things so far this summer:

1. Finding the Cos summer sale on day one. Check out this cool online magazine that they publish.

2. Coriandre Diptyque candle. It goes well with Baeis and Figuer.

3. Making this kale salad (with the kale from my balcony),

while drinking San Pelligrino with Chlorophyll drops. Sounds weird, but it is super refreshing, plus some extra health benefits.

4. Hoist the rag by Tom Waits. (I always have to listen to it two times in a row.)

5. Martini Rosso (in Barcelona or at a Parisian bar) or Pastis (at home or in the village), just depends on the venue.
-Martini is made from four ingredients: wine, botanicals, sugar and alcohol. I prefer it on the rocks. 
-Pastis  is an anise-flavored liqueur and apéritif rom France, typically containing 40–45% alcohol by volume, so I dilute it with a 1:5 Pastis/water ratio. Sometimes I add menthe flavor, which is called a Perroquet (French for 'parrot').  

Processing

I am waiting for the final signing for the house in Burgundy, which is maddening. It's like sitting with my decision, while waiting for the future consequences to come rolling in.

And on top of that, I had a Japanese lymphatic massage on Sunday night at my favorite place, that resulted in me be laid up in bed for the past three days. Not able to eat food, or drink anything other than water all week. After a little googling I found that I had all of the cautionary (and rare) symptoms of post lymphatic massage:

• nausea
• headaches
• chills
• fever
• achy muscles
• emotional responses

In hindsight, I had these same post-massage symptoms the last time I had a similar massage back in March.

During the past three days, I have second guessed my decision to buy a house in Burgundy, which is probably called buyer's remorse. I have even gone so far as to question my move to Paris, my decision to not have children yet (regardless of my marital status), my profession, past bad decisions (thanks to Orange is the New Black),  and just about every relationship I have/had. I think this could be a by product of the last symptom in the bullet list-- emotional response.

Today I am starting to feel more normal and may even try eating solid foods again. Trying some Jedi mind control to switch around these thoughts to a more constructive and positive wave length. So it was interesting and timely to receive my daily Notes from the Universe today:

It's perfectly normal, that when waiting for a really big dream to come true it seems like it's taking forever, you wonder if you're doing something wrong, and you feel like you should just be happy with less. 

But I promise you, no matter how long it takes, once it happens it'll seem as if time flew, you'll wonder how you ever doubted yourself, and you'll feel like you should have aimed a little higher. 

Aim a little higher, darling, 
-The Universe

Weekend inspiration: Jay Z

If I loved  Jay Z anymore, I would have to jump off a bridge.

The fact that he collaborates with Marina Abramović on this perfomrance piece, and features Adam from Girls is just the freaking icing and cherry on the Jay Z cake.
Enjoy!

Canicule

Canicule (Fr.)/ Heatwave (Eng.) noun: a spell of abnormally hot weather.

A friend had written this on my new chalkboard wall as a joke about the title of my next book. How prophetic.

Last weekend, France experienced a canicule. I knew that hot weather was expected at some point and that my kale garden would likely suffer a little. Each summer France prepares their canicule alert plan in preparation for these abnormally hot periods. There are four categories of alerts:

• Green: no warnings in place
• Yellow: minor alert
• Oragne: High alert, dangerous meteorological conditions are forecast.
• Red: Maximum alert, severe and dangerous weather conditions, precautions to be taken.

To say the least, Paris was on code red last weekend. Code red is defined as: 
"People are recommended to take precautions by staying out of direct heat and sun and drinking water regularly. Special care should be taken of the young, elderly and ill. Severe medical impact expected."

I heeded this warning and decided to stay down in the village in close proximity to the Boys' pool, rather than suffering back in the city. How civilized of me. And while I was taking precautions to keep my person somewhat comfortable, my kale back in Paris did not fare so well.

Here we have the scene of the crime.

The kale, lettuce, herb garden before the canicule--so much promise.

 Post canicule-- melted kale, and a resilient survivor.

Oh, no!

I thought mint plants were supposed to be sturdy, however it was burnt to a crisp. Thank god for the new growth peeking through.

The lettuce had melted in on itself, and now two confused lettuce plants try and resurrect themselves through the devastation.

The one kale planter that seemed to persevere (and dare I say, thrive), was the one in the Maison Blanche wine box.

I think it is very auspicious that the only survivor was contained in the White House box.

Une maison en Bourgogne

After more than a year of house hunting in France, I am proud to say that I bought a house. 

A house with two barns. 

A house with two barns, in Burgundy.

Who do I think I am? And how in the hell is this going to work? These are just two, of thousands, of questions that I have surrounding this event.

However, I really want this to be an easy birth. Therefore I am choosing to lean into it vs. resisting and contracting. I am trying to manage a balance between considering the facts and fantasizing about a large, candlelit, atumn party, in the attached barn. I think this may also have something to do with this inexplicable urge to watch Hope Floats.

For now I am focusing on the next few steps:

1. Arrange for internet and phone. (It can take up to six months I’ve been told)
2. Make sure that the Notaire and bank are communicating and meeting their deadlines.
3. Go check out the house (the current owners are away on vacation and have given me access between now and the final signing) and assess the immediate needs for habitation (things like bedding, cookware, towels, lights, etc.). Also check to see what the owners might be taking/leaving when the sale is official.
4. Finish setting up my Paris apartment. I can't turn my back on my main squeeze, Paris.
5. Blog about this process so I have a digital record of how excited, inspired, confused, clear, nervous, and happy I am.
   

Day 2: buffet

I was super excited to post my accomplishment and wish I could say that everything went successfully today with the self assembly of my buffet.

The good news is that I did not have to buy pliers (pinces) because the grumpy man at the bricolage pulled my wooden wedgie things out with his own pliers when I showed him my mistakes in the support beams. Wow! Someone doing something helpful, it sort of reminded about the way things use to work back in the US.

I was eager to complete my project and quickly got back to work. I was reminded about how great I am at following directions. When something wasn't working, I stopped and tried to understand why rather than forcing it. One time, I simply walked away and returned later and the exact same difficult piece was miraculously cooperative. I thought about how frustrating it can be to assemble with a partner who approached things in a rushed, chaotic way and was sort of relieved that I was going it solo.

I realized very quickly why the instructions say that it takes 2 people to set this up. Flipping over the assembled piece was a challenge, but it was resolved with a large beach towel and a cardboard box support. I flipped it by myself and that was a small victory for me--proving that I can tackle a task on my own without having to stop and enlist reinforcement. That seems to be where a lot of my past projects were left incomplete.

I just wish that the hinges would have played nice. Those things are near impossible to tighten with just a phillips head screwdriver. And that is why I will buy a drill tomorrow. I figured I am going to be needing a drill a lot in the future and might as well get my own rather than relying on the Boys to supply my power tool needs.

Alas, we await tomorrow (Day 3) to finish the buffet assembly. More patience practicing.

Buffet

I finally found a white lacquer & wood buffet for the apartment in Paris. It was 50% off due to the July Soldes (Sales), which afforded me the extra cost associated with having it delivered and professionally assembled.

The good news is that it was delivered to my 2nd floor Paris apartment.

The bad news is that the delivery guy said he doesn't do assembly.

Since I bought it online, there isn't a contact number available so that I can debate this delivery error and demand a "spécialiste de l'assemblage" like I paid for.  But how hard could it be? I am a smart, capable lady. Yet here I am at 9:38pm blogging about this situation, and not actually finishing the assembly tonight like I had planned.

I made a fatal mistake in Etape No.1 (Step One). One that requires pliers to pull these little wooden wedgie things out of the incorrectly inserted holes.  I don't currently own any pliers, and bricolages are closed at this hour. In a desperate attempt to continue my momentum this evening, I took my Shu Uemura eyebrow tweezers to the situation. That obviously didn't work.

I will continue this incredible act of patience tomorrow.

 à demain...