ok so its been what to me feeling like forever since i wrote a little update... though probably not that long soooo much has happened.
so i begin at the marrionette festival where mike and i met Rosie sitting under a tree by the caroselle in Mirepoix. funnily enough i didnt see many puppet shows at the festival as it was all to over wealming for me, the sounds, lights, people, food, mike and rosie tigether!! wow. so that night we went out into the countryside and slept benieth the stars.
The next day we hitched first thing to Esperaza market on mikes recomendation that we MUST get pan de Marie, a specifically amazing local bread made from local spelt made by Maire... lady bread. unfortunatly we missed the bread and most of the market, as is the nature if hitching...... with three people, three backpacks and three guitars, but we did meet a rainbow brother called Ben who with his "shanti shanti" vibes took us all back to mirepoix where we set up just outside the town by a river. Mike and i wondered of for some splishy splashy and embarised some innocent dog walkers when they stumbled pon us post shower drying... but it was ok cos turnedout they were hippies also coming down for a bath haha.
mirepoix is a beautiful medival town in the pyreneese where a few years back i veisited with mike and radek to find an apples festival happening! huge sculptures made of apples. there were no apples this time and the marrionettes had moved on but we set up busking and a little stall with my jewelery in the market and ban himself had a big stall full of the usual hippy indian imports to sell.
our plan was to hitch south after the market and go to some hot springs we knew of.. little did we know of bens "shanti shanti" plans to kidnap us to a local pices of land for an evening of music and food.
.... then again we didnt resist much, schlomped in the back of his truck tired from all the moving about it was nice to chill out for an evening.
then next day the hours seemed to fly by... aaaahhhh rainbow land vortex... all good and well bnut its no way to get to a hot spring so finally we took the assertive role and instead of waiting for ben to do his "shanti shanti" thing we plonked out bags on our backs and hiked down to the local town.... three people... three bags.... three guitars..... and not many hours of sunlight left to reach just by the spanish boarder. It wasnt long after a few short rides and lots of long waits that we began to realise the chance of us making it out of the area (which has a similar magnetic vortex as glastonbury, full of cosmic coincidences that are all so amazing but also very good at promoting procrastonation) rosie declaires "right this next car that stops will take us all the way there" as she said it i stick my thumb out and two white vans pull in...... to take us pretty much right there! two guys heading to boom festival but spending a month driving around france hiking in mountains, they took us to the closest big town but by this point it was pretty late so we parked up in a road side meadow in the now very high mountains. here they revealed to us the secret of having two vans, paked with sliding door facing they revealed a neat little kitchen in one, and the other? a fully chill down shanti living room complete with throws and futon.. nice. we chowed down on some lovely nosh they made and talked the night away before departing to out little tent (as its much colder and damp at night up here).
wow to wake up in the mountains surrounded by wild flowers. sun blazing down and the lads decide to sleep in pretty late so we have planty of time to enjoy the area. mike and i wonder up the mountain side a bit and sit on a rock for one of "those" chats .... yet somehow surrounded by so much beauty and clean air its harder to take these things seriously.... soon enough we found ourselves entranced by a new friend... a small butterfly had joined us during out convocation and had been crawling across my face, legs, hands, feet, nose, head...everywhere. occasionally fluttering away and returning a few minutes later. This beautiful little blessing stayed with us for about an hour just enjoying us enjoying its company before it flew away and we decended down the hill for breakfast.
we arrived at the hotsprings later that day, but the sun was dwindling. storm clouds brewed above our heads and as we reached the bottom of the wild cascade of steaming spring water after a sdhort hike away from a small mountain road the heavans opened and tropical rain began to descend. we did what any sensible person would, put our bags and guitars under a plastic poncho, stripped off and jumed into the hottest pool our skin could handle. Wow, what an experiance, cold rain hitting my face lieing in a steamy pool of soft sulpher water surrounded by lush green forrest and rocks.... mmmmm....
the raind relaxed for long enough to set up the tent before the real dowpour happened, thunder, lightning, floods... wow... amazing. me having no raincoat (i left it at home like a silly billy)was standing in the warm rainy weather in silk trousers and a t shirt, cooking quinoa and veg on an open fire with mike and rosie. As the stars came out and the storm passed over we dried out over the flames before snuggling in together to the tent. we found a handy dry cave for the bags and guitars and prayed for sunshine in the morning.
Morning... hot spring bath.... and the clouds drew in again... we though yesterdays sudden downpoar was bad .. then this one came. we huddled in the tent with more quinoa and veg and listened to the roar of the rain... rosie the ever doing doer she is climbed out qnd dug a trench round the tent wit ha fork which worked amazingly then off we trundled back to the hotsprings to make the most of the face we were allready wet. i tell you there is no better place to be in this weather than lieing in a hotspring with wonderful people all around.
the next day the sun came back and we driend off any wetness which remained and planned our next moves... already time for rosie to leave? how can it be? then east we should head as its less than a week now untill my bus to latvia. A synchronistic moment in the hot springs that morning met us up with Pablo, a freind we had met the year before where he lived, 6 hours drive east of where we were now. He is part of a group of inspiring individuals who took songs and performance all about spriulina (of course, what else!?) to africa last year and taught people to grow their own spirulia. and guess where he happened to be driving? thats right! 6 hours east to toulon where more of out wonderfull friends from the year before would be. synchro flow yo! so .... into the car we jumped leaving rosie at the hot springs planning her route (with a rather lovely french girl who seemed to take a shining to her so im guessing shes safe now haha) and off we headed east.
now our old friend Gerome had left me with a fantastic parting gift back in mirepoix after out night under the stars. a pair of googly eyes which attatch to my hand to make my little hand creature puppet i love to make look even more life like... so when we hit the rush our traffic at the payages many hours later what else did i have to do other than enterntain myself (and other cars) with googley swan!? .. people laughed! people responded with their own makeshift puppets! people pulled faces! pablo laughed! pablo crashed!... ah yes... pablo crashed hehe. very very slow (almost stopped) traffic and in all the excitement of cheesy 90s pop music and a dancing hand puppet the car we were in kissed the bumper of the car in front and oh dear the driver was not happy.. he got out all stern in the middle of the carpark-esqua motorway and light hearted pablo also got out to assess the damage, and in the moment managed to also slam his fingers into the car door!!!!! ouchy ... oh pablo, renound; i find out after, for his clumsyness just laughed it all off and back on our way we went.... googley swan acting a little more timid from here on in.( though for a good portion more of the journey people were driving past us making puppety gestures and laughing)
we later stopped at a service station and met up with Mr spirulina himself who happend to be 10 minutes behind us on the motorway also heading east fropm the mountains. a late nick picnic and a plan was concieved to go meet another friend Assia as she finished work on the night market at 1am and suprise her.
aaah the cote azur! sucha contrast to the fertile natular land of the mountains.... this concrete james bond esque money world. we supprised assia and the shock on her face was priceless and memorable... but it was late and all so everyone finally went of home and mike and i were driven 2km out of town to what we were told was some wild beach... it was actually a rocky coast line behind some houses yet beautiful anyway. we set out a little bed and cuddled up under the stars. 3am we closed our eyes. 6am we opened them again to see a rageing electric storm heading our way. memories of the downpours at the hotsprings let us to pack out bed away and swiftly head toward town to sit in a restaurant verranda and wait for the world to wake up and for the rain to come.... funnily enough the rain didnt come untill just before the restaurant opened so we sat sleepy eyed and ate crossants and drank earl grey to wake us up.
we spent the day at the rich market having fun with assia as the rain eventually gave way around mid day to glorious sunshine... copious amounts of ice cream and at around midnight Mr Spirulina arrived to whisk us away to his grandparents land where we met pablo and again we spent another glorious night under the stars. The next day our plans to head north to a beautiful community south of grenoble was foiled by sleepy morning hippy time and an adventure to the sea to try snorkeling. .... now ive had a fear of large expances of water since before i could walk or talk so it was an amazing experience to me to be in a rather choppy med sea on rocks slippy and dotted with crazy spikey orb creatures (why any great creator would create such an evil creature designed to spike innocent tourists and paddlers and not much else i dont know) ..... (bless it anyway).... and trying to trust that if i submerge my face into the salty mass i will be able to breath and my reward would be to be able to see underwater world of fish. it was definatly an experience though not the ideal situation for a first time snorkler.... however i did come out of it virtually unscathed.... unlike mike who came out of the sea dripping with bright pinkyred blood from where the rocks had ripped his legs and feet to shreds. (dont worry mum of mike he's surving.... it makes him stronger!)
so eventually after another stary sleep and a slow relaxing start to the day we head off north saying goodbye to the lovely spirulina man (spirumann.com i believe) and laden with green powders of different kinds stuffed in every available pocket. an easy hitch up to the south of the alps and to suprise our friends at the community. infact we were dropped about 4km away from it on a road which no cars seemed to pass but my intuition was telling me the la terriade crew would drive past, and low and behold a white van pulls into the road and there is David, smile huge at the sight of us and in he pulls exclaiming how he hasnt driving on the route for 3 weeks and the first time he does there we are.
so here we are, bach in one of my homes of heart, i love it here. amongst mountains. one day i think i will live here.
its comming to the end of my time in france... and my time with mike... tomorrow we head to grenobles and stay with somefriends there and the morning after... i board my bus to latvia and say goodbye to mike...
.... i have no words for this....
i love everyone at home.... have been thinking a lot of my dad recently.I love you Dad.
Loads of love and i will write again when i can!
Fleassy xx
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