French la Vie https://www.frenchlavie.com French la Vie Fri, 17 Jul 2026 22:09:22 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.1 https://www.frenchlavie.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/poppy-1-150x150.png French la Vie https://www.frenchlavie.com 32 32 https://www.frenchlavie.com/2026/07/18/the-sign-of-the-times/ The Sign of the Times https://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/960800198/0/tongueincheek~The-Sign-of-the-Times/ https://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/960800198/0/tongueincheek~The-Sign-of-the-Times/#respond Sat, 18 Jul 2026 02:00:31 +0000 https://www.frenchlavie.com/?p=85747 This morning, as I was walking, I came to an old fence post where a sign read: NO VEHICLES BEYOND THIS POINT I stopped there longer than usual. How many signs pass before us each day without our noticing? The ones nailed to a post. The ones carried across the news. The expressions on another […]
               

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This morning, as I was walking, I came to an old fence post where a sign read:

NO VEHICLES BEYOND THIS POINT

I stopped there longer than usual.

How many signs pass before us each day without our noticing? The ones nailed to a post. The ones carried across the news. The expressions on another person’s face. The tightening in our own chest.

What if there were signs that read:

NO HATRED BEYOND THIS POINT.
NO HARM BEYOND THIS POINT.
NO WAR BEYOND THIS POINT.

Would we stop? Would we turn around?

Perhaps the earth has been placing such signs before us all along—through everything, and through everyone.

But our days are crowded with noise. A constant bombardment of signals, opinions, demands, and distractions. We become practiced at looking without seeing, hearing without listening. Living without engaging.

Are awake enough to recognize them?

               

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]]> https://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/960800198/0/tongueincheek~The-Sign-of-the-Times/feed/ 0 https://www.frenchlavie.com/2026/07/17/heartland/ Heartland https://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/960668384/0/tongueincheek~Heartland/ https://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/960668384/0/tongueincheek~Heartland/#comments Fri, 17 Jul 2026 02:00:26 +0000 https://www.frenchlavie.com/?p=85740 Love lived here, and remains. I left for France forty years ago. An ocean of living has happened since then. Other homes. Another language. Other versions of myself. And yet, stepping back into these rooms, I discover that some part of me never packed a suitcase. I have been here all along. Waiting beside familiar […]]]>

Love lived here, and remains.

I left for France forty years ago. An ocean of living has happened since then. Other homes. Another language. Other versions of myself.

And yet, stepping back into these rooms, I discover that some part of me never packed a suitcase.

I have been here all along.

Waiting beside familiar shelves, beneath familiar ceilings, knowing what every drawer holds.

Where the child you were and the person you became sit beside one another—

Where everything is still in its place— 

so am I.

]]> https://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/960668384/0/tongueincheek~Heartland/feed/ 5 https://www.frenchlavie.com/2026/07/16/all-of-it/ All of It https://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/960522221/0/tongueincheek~All-of-It/ https://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/960522221/0/tongueincheek~All-of-It/#comments Thu, 16 Jul 2026 02:00:16 +0000 https://www.frenchlavie.com/?p=85734 We can be delicate and strong.We can be sad and still share joy.We can have today and live it moment by moment, yet still yearn for tomorrow and the day after. We can have nothing to say, yet want to scream while remaining silent. We can feel the sun on our faces and the rainstorm […]]]>

We can be delicate and strong.
We can be sad and still share joy.
We can have today and live it moment by moment, yet still yearn for tomorrow and the day after.

We can have nothing to say, yet want to scream while remaining silent.

We can feel the sun on our faces and the rainstorm running down our cheeks.

We can be hungry and not want to eat, or eat and still feel hungry.

We can waste so much time on so many unimportant things, yet fiercely guard what is important in our lives—especially when it all comes to the edge.

We can be many things, hold many things, love many things, want more, and wonder why it all goes by so fast. The truth is, we have more than most, and yet we still think it is not enough.

We can question God, our faith, and life itself. We can shake our heads, call it unfair and beautiful, and realize that we are just one beautiful drop in the bucket—grateful to have made even the tiniest splash.

]]> https://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/960522221/0/tongueincheek~All-of-It/feed/ 3 https://www.frenchlavie.com/2026/07/15/bastille-day-last-night/ Bastille Day, Last Night https://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/960452750/0/tongueincheek~Bastille-Day-Last-Night/ https://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/960452750/0/tongueincheek~Bastille-Day-Last-Night/#comments Wed, 15 Jul 2026 02:00:09 +0000 https://www.frenchlavie.com/?p=85726 The fireworks in Cassis celebrating Bastille Day were spectacular. We’re fortunate to have front-row seats from our Fisherman’s House, which looks directly toward the lighthouse where the fireworks are launched. Chelsea sent me these photos of the Pickles oklast night. She also sent a short video, which I’ll post on Facebook. Olivia danced to the […]]]>

The fireworks in Cassis celebrating Bastille Day were spectacular. We’re fortunate to have front-row seats from our Fisherman’s House, which looks directly toward the lighthouse where the fireworks are launched.

Chelsea sent me these photos of the Pickles oklast night. She also sent a short video, which I’ll post on Facebook.

Olivia danced to the music, while Gabriel watched until the end. He said it was beautiful, but also too loud and too bright, and that it scares all the animals.

]]> https://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/960452750/0/tongueincheek~Bastille-Day-Last-Night/feed/ 4 https://www.frenchlavie.com/2026/07/14/the-archaeologist-of-creativity/ The Archaeologist of Creativity https://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/960325190/0/tongueincheek~The-Archaeologist-of-Creativity/ https://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/960325190/0/tongueincheek~The-Archaeologist-of-Creativity/#comments Tue, 14 Jul 2026 02:00:06 +0000 https://www.frenchlavie.com/?p=85710 The beads are old, tiny glass survivors, many more than a century old. Once they swayed from the fringes of electric lamps and evening purses, until fabric surrendered and only the beads remained.  Lizzie found them everywhere:  forgotten bags on eBay, shredded purses, mysterious little packets filled with mismatched fragments. Her favorites too many- some were […]]]>

The beads are old, tiny glass survivors, many more than a century old. Once they swayed from the fringes of electric lamps and evening purses, until fabric surrendered and only the beads remained. 

Lizzie found them everywhere:  forgotten bags on eBay, shredded purses, mysterious little packets filled with mismatched fragments. Her favorites too many- some were broken, chunky, impossibly small. She spent hours sorting them like an archaeologist working in sand.

No one taught Lizzie.

She taught herself, then attended a workshop only to discover she’d already wandered into the forest and found the path.

The foundation? Old blue jeans. Denim strong enough to hold hundreds of beads. Onto that sturdy cloth she stitched thousands of tiny decisions while Charles Dickens read aloud from cassette tapes. Click. Stitch. Chapter. Bead. Repeat.

Was the direction art?

Not exactly.

Meditation, a conversation with color.

A slow ceremony of arranging, dreaming, rearranging, delighting.

How long did each piece take?

The question misses the point.

Time dissolved. Twenty hours? Maybe. The clock was never invited.

After ten years away from beading, what remains is evidence of who Lizzie has always been: someone compelled to gather what others overlook, to layer past with present, to transform fragments into wonder.

My dear friend Lizzie has a need to create, tiny sparks of delight—and stitches them together objects, family, friends, dreams… a way of being.

]]> https://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/960325190/0/tongueincheek~The-Archaeologist-of-Creativity/feed/ 7 https://www.frenchlavie.com/2026/07/13/healing-the-image-of-ourselves/ Healing the Image of Ourselves https://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/960216506/0/tongueincheek~Healing-the-Image-of-Ourselves/ https://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/960216506/0/tongueincheek~Healing-the-Image-of-Ourselves/#comments Mon, 13 Jul 2026 02:00:26 +0000 https://www.frenchlavie.com/?p=85699 Claire Sparkle sits on my lap while we read, one hand holding the book, the other finding my chin. She moves it back and forth. “Do you like wiggling my double chin?” I ask. “It’s soft,” she says, as if she were touching a bunny’s ear. She has no idea that I have spent years […]]]>

Claire Sparkle sits on my lap while we read, one hand holding the book, the other finding my chin. She moves it back and forth.

“Do you like wiggling my double chin?” I ask.

“It’s soft,” she says, as if she were touching a bunny’s ear.

She has no idea that I have spent years wishing away that part of myself. She doesn’t know that every mirror reflects those thoughts back to me.

Her fingers wiggle my waddle because it is soft. Because it is me. The Vavie she loves.

I feel something shift inside me.

My granddaughter has returned my face to me, made new through her eyes. The face that bends down to read to her. The lap she climbs into. The voice that knows all the characters. My double chin is part of the landscape of someone she feels safe with

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