France feels like coming home to me. When I step off the train or plane, I feel it immediately. Often, just hearing the language triggers something within me. I find myself instantly inspired. By the sound of the language, but also by the smells, the place I’m in or traveling to, the people, the authentic villages, the vistas, the sea… It doesn’t take long before I’m fishing my notebook out of my bag to jot down my impressions. Writing and France are inextricably linked. I love visiting Paris and the South of France, places that fuel my creativity, inspire me, and how they always bring me back to what I love most: writing.
It’s not just the beautiful landscape that inspires me, but also the French lifestyle, the joie de vivre, a way of life palpable in even the smallest detail. A sunrise or sunset, a fresh baguette from the corner boulangerie, a wonderful find in a vide grenier, the scents of the south, like lavender, thyme, and rosemary, a conversation on a terrace. The French know how to make small moments grand. And it’s precisely this feeling that I try to convey in my stories so that others can enjoy it too. La douce vie!
My writing days begin early, with a cup of coffee and a notebook where I jot down all my ideas and notes for my book, which I observe from my spot on the terrace of a village square where people play pétanque and the weekly market is held. The market with its fresh produce, linen clothes fluttering in the breeze, locals reading a newspaper, the meditative sound of the splashing fountain. Shutters opening, a cat stretching out and then dozing off in the morning sun. I jot it all down. These are the details that give my book its color. I feel a sense of peace wash over me; here I live almost without a watch. Like the wine and the olives, they adhere to the season and are not harvested in a hurry. They are given time to ripen, just like the book I’m writing. Because only now that I’m slowing down my life do I see what truly matters.
Later, when the sun is high in the sky, I write in my room with the window slightly open, so I’m surrounded by the scent of jasmine. My fingers dance across the keyboard, to the rhythm of the cicadas. The characters in my book stroll through the medieval streets, enjoy a drink in squares where life sometimes seems to stand still, and keep their secrets in houses where the shutters are closed during the warm hours of the day.
Provence gives me the images, scents, and secrets I find nowhere else, helping me to write my story not only with my head but also with my heart.
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Darina is an avid writer and is currently writing a book about the south of France. Since she was twelve years old, she has written stories and her first book, “The Night that Changed her Life” appeared in 2009 following her participation in a writing competition. A book of the same name is being published this year by an American publisher. She also writes articles for the newsletter Hans in Provence.
Belle Provence Travels 