Day 33/34 - Halfway to Peace.

Saturday 17th July.

Solitude! A day to myself! And it is the halfway mark of the holiday! Or is it? I think my counting is out of whack.Tony is taking oldies and youngies first to Arles - a fantastic town which pays hommage to Ancient Rome and Vincent Van Gogh…it truly is amazing but I DON’T want to see it again with B and M. We have oodles of time….so they set off for the day. They plan to leave B in Arles while Tony takes Margaret and the kids down to the Mediterranean for a swim, through the Camargue - an area famous for it’s wild white horses. It’s been a very dry summer, and the horses have been rolling in the dust, so they’re anything but white - but the drive is beautiful and they reach the southern tip of the Mediterranean where Sam and Katie swim in the warm sea and M and Beloved find a shady bar and cold beers and watch an hour of the tour before returning to Arles to pick up B.

While they are gone I sit in the shade and watch the hills, do sudokus, daydream, and catch up with some writing. My company is Bill Evans….playing beautiful piano which reminds me of my friend Alan Slater. I just put the Bill Evans trio on repeat - a jazz mantra for centre-ing myself again. In the afternoon I start preparation for a family dinner. Melon with Proscuitto; pork cutlets marinated in peche liqeur with fresh figs and chopped garlic….I brown them off after a couple of hours, then into the oven….leaving the marinade to caramelise and be cut with some white wine and crème fraiche. There will be sautee potatoes with French shallots and fresh rosemary, and courgettes frittes with butter and herbes provencal. A Tarte Tatin and ice cream for dessert with the table set with napkins and candles and champagne glasses….champagne goes so well with melon. I love dinner parties but have only held one since leaving Perth…. I just have no-one to invite.
Between preparations I watch snippets of the tour de France and think of the sacrifice Tony is making….days and days of missing his beloved tour to amuse his family. When we first met he told me he went on holiday for two weeks every July. What he meant was that he sat in his tiny flat and watched Le Tour on TV, accompanied by French Beer. I knew that to love the man meant to love Le Tour….and what’s not to love about 180 young athletic guys in lycra? Drool factor 10! Over the years Beloved has taken the time to explain the rules and tactics of just about every sport to me and I LOVE the Tour de France. It’s a chess game on wheels.

When the wanderers return they are tired but happy and are content to be waited on. The food is a great success and we all stuff ourselves and tear off pieces of bread to wipe the dish clean of the wonderful sauce ( wish I could remember exactly how I made it). We add two bottles of white wine to the bottle of champagne and sit silently sated for half an hour after the Tartin. Life is good and we don’t finish dinner until 9.30pm. Beloved is exhausted after all the driving but keeps thanking me for the trouble I went to with the meal. The grump has gone and the loving man with the child in his eyes is back! YAY! He soon excuses himself for bed and the rest of us, too full to play cards, rifle the children’s DVD’s and watch the 70th Anniversary edition of Pinocchio. To think that this was before CGI where all you need is computer skills. Every movement, every expression is a hand coloured cell created by someone totally committed to the same vision. Now THAT’S art! There are three generations of people in the room and we ALL love it, and I am filled with regret that so few films now have high concepts, or charm, or art. The storytelling is wonderful….. The moral themes are universal; A lie, once spoken, continues to grow: and bravery, love, and sacrifice entitle you to be human! Try as I might - I can’t find anything as profound in Alvin and The Chipmunks - The Squeakwel! By midnight we have had cups of tea and little Madeleine cakes and are ready for bed. It’s a cooler night, and I know we’ll all sleep well. Provence is working her magic at last.