jessepeckwrites

Featured August 31, 2013

Throw-back post: Provence is even cooler than you think

One year ago today, I was packing and saying my goodbyes. Tonight, I am looking through my old posts, messing with the format of my blog, and trying to rekindle my engagement in an activity that has been on hold during the intense early phase of another major renovation. I happened upon this post, never…

August 31, 2013

Throw-back post: Le Luberon

A tour of four Luberon villages The selection of photographs above are from our first outing, a lovely day of winding and climbing though the hilltop towns of the Luberon Valley, well four of them at least. The Luberon Valley is the Provence that you see in the movies. Tiny towns, growing directly out of…

I am not dead, or buried in snow, or stuck in the bathroom

I thought about writing a funny “I’m back” post about being stuck in the half-bath for the last few months. Something about how the door sticks something fierce because it hangs at an angle, followed by a sardonic joke about the boys never bothering to check on the rattling noise coming from behind the door.…

December 7, 2012

To Paris, with love

Paris is beautiful, especially in the rain. Six weeks after my arrival in the South of France, I hopped the TGV out of Aix for the Gare de Lyon. Simultaneously, my boys hopped on a direct flight out of JFK, destination Charles De Gaulle Airport. We met at the hotel in the 14th arondissement. It was raining.…

November 30, 2012

La Vie en Rose

There is just something about France and love. “… you’ll have to fall in love at least once in your life, or Paris has failed to rub off on you.” —E.A. Buchianerie, Brushstrokes of a Gladfly Merde! I’m in love. I know, I know, quelle surprise. It all sounds so predictable: burnt-out, disgruntled, overworked American goes…

November 27, 2012

Home

We watched the continent-size hurricane approaching the Long Island Sound on an 8×12 inch computer screen, the four of us huddled together on a love seat in Provence. We did not speak too much about It because you cannot have that what if conversation when the what if is too daunting and the outcome too…

October 9, 2012

The Market: In pictures

The market, once intimidating because of the French required to navigate through the purchasing process, has now become one of my favorite weekly routines. Sometimes I even take my camera. I even have a regular produce stand, which is run by an older couple that while helpful are not overly friendly. I have learned these key phrases…

October 9, 2012

Musings on cultural inheritances and long working hours

The character of a third place is determined most of all by its regular clientele and is marked by a playful mood, which contrasts with people’s more serious involvement in other spheres. Though a radically different kind of setting for a home, the third place is remarkably similar to a good home in the psychological…

September 24, 2012

Ironman and my trip to the market

I am a pretty big fan of Ironman and triathlons in general, and would most certainly compete in them myself, if not for an unfortunate knee injury, so I was excited to learn that an Ironman would be ending somewhere in Aix this September. I knew this even before I left the US. In hindsight, it probably…

September 23, 2012

Why it is hard to work in a place that is so lovely

Oh, hello everyone. I did not mean to let this week go by without an update, but as soon as I wrote a post about time moving slowly in Aix, I got really, really busy . . . of course. Starting from last Saturday, the day after I wrote the post about doing my laundry,…

September 14, 2012

Laundry Day

A laundry day filled with wonder, who would have thought . . . I have been dreading seeking out a laundromat in Aix, and so have not done my laundry since I arrived 11 days ago. With an upcoming excursion with my students to the even warmer city of Nice, it was clear to me…

September 13, 2012

Mon jour in photos

I am always trying to take very good pictures with my better camera, but today I decided that I never have time to do this so am going to start taking snap shots with my not-that-good camera because I can carry it with me anywhere, which will mean that you will see more pictures on…