This is my 4th Christmas Eve in France – how fast time has passed since we arrived!
Today was a perfect Christmas Eve… I still don’t sleep very well, but managed to get through until 5am instead of 3am. So, rather than trying to get back to sleep – which I knew from experience was near impossible – I lay in bed, reading for a while… Then my husband woke, and we had tea and toast in bed, and I read the news on my iPad. I made a brief plan of what I had to do, then got up, dressed, and prepared parmesan and rosemary shortbread biscuits and Dorset apple cake, set the table and tidied round. By then it was light, and looked very bleak and wintry – leafless trees, grey skies, wet terrace, muddy “grass” where the dogs have chased each other. Still, it was mild – warm, even – so I put my running kit on and set off for a short run.
The track through our woodland was a layer of dirty leaves slipping around on top of mud… Mushrooms springing up everywhere – all over the path, amongst the trees. I don’t recall the woodland looking so sparse – I could see straight through on either side, to the fields beyond; again, no crop, just mud. So much mud, and yet… As I started running I felt a surge of joy, of love for this place, the familiarity, the quiet solitude, the peace… Well, apart from the odd gunshot that is. I’m assuming there were people out hunting, but didn’t see anyone, so hoped I wasn’t close enough to any farmer to get shot. It was perfect for a run, just wearing late spring kit – not a hint of wind, the clouds started to clear and the sky started to reveal it’s blue beauty. No-one passed me in a car, I saw no-one out walking or hunting – it was such a perfect day for a run! Still, I didn’t have very long, so started off planning to only run 3km, because I ran 6km yesterday and usually prefer a day off in between. However, there’s a hill that I find challenging and yesterday I managed to run up it – and beyond – so I set myself the challenge of doing it again today. In the end, I was so elated to be able to do it again, that I ran 5km, though not terribly fast. But, with Queen singing, the sky clearing, my body feeling strong – I really didn’t mind too much about that.
Afterwards, a lovely long shower and I could look forward to our friends arriving. Prosecco to toast Christmas, lots – too much – of good food, laughter and terrible Christmas jokes. Such a relaxing way to spend the afternoon, and I think that’s what’s so good about France; you don’t feel compelled to DO things, to go to places, to buy/shop, to be busy, you can enjoy the quieter things in life, to be alive, to just “be”… with friends, alone, just to appreciate the world out there. I will never again, I know, live somewhere like this, totally surrounded by nature. Silence, countryside, empty roads, birds of prey sitting on telegraph poles as still as the poles themselves, then swooping for something invisible to humans, and rising again majestically… Watching a family of deer in the fields while I sit in bed sipping tea, or seeing them running out of the sunflower fields, just a few steps in front of me. How lucky am I, to be here? How incredible this life quiet French life is! And for all I say I’d like to be able to celebrate Christmas Eve by being in a busy cafe or bar in England, surrounded by other people, buying last minute gifts, hearing carol singers outside town centre shops… Would I really? How sad, if, given that choice, I’d REALLY choose that over this, this perfect Christmas Eve.
“Gifts of time and love are surely the basic ingredients of a truly merry Christmas.” ― Peg Bracken