Author Archives: len

A talk in the woods. Tweet

We left Aix Sunday afternoon for a drive north into Peter Mayles country, in search of lavender fields. We stayed in Le Clos des Lavandes, a Maison d’Hote near Lacoste. At the Musée de la Lavande in Coustellet, Darlene made … Continue reading →

Leslie de Rousillon Tweet

The scene yesterday at the open-air market in Aix-en-ProvenceAt the home of Joyce and Jean-Marie, I am typing on the Vaio out in the garden. The big table still has the yellow and orange Provençal-style tablecloth on it from last … Continue reading →

A PLAY IN ONE ACT Scene: A first-class couchette on the train from Bordeaux to Nice. Since it is daytime, a Thursday, the bunks have disappeared into the ceiling and wall. Six passengers face each other in two rows of … Continue reading →

Darlene at the Aquarium in La Rochelle, where a rainy day had drawn big crowds to watch the fish. Here in Bordeaux, we’re packing up for the 8-hour train ride back to Cannes.  Tweet

Hotel Mercure Chateau Chatron, Bordeaux Darlene and I managed to get a surprising amount of sleep Monday on the night train from Cannes to Bordeaux. When we found our couchette, a room with two beds up and two down, a … Continue reading →

My youngest daughter, Roo, is 26 years old today. So it’s a good day to translate a poem about a superb gift and the passage of time. “Impromptu” is by Jules Aïm, the blind poet who, with his wife Sabine, … Continue reading →

Picasso painted La Famille, “The Family,” in nearby Mougins on September 30, 1970, at the age of 88, less than three years before his death on April 8, 1973. Tweet

It’s no coincidence that the café car on the Train à Grand Vitesse (TGV) looks like a spaceship. The train travels at up to 200 miles per hour, and inside it’s as quiet as a library. Darlene and I happily … Continue reading →