Thursday, October 27, 2011

Dreaming of France - Les Temps Perdu





It has been too many months since I wrote...business and busy ness get in the way and there is not always time to find the words to describe my days. But then I will look back from a distance and see the past so clearly, and the meaning of it becomes clear. Proust was the one who said it best - that the true flavor of any experience can only be felt much, much later....the remembrance of "temps perdu."

Last summer I spent a week in France, with my daughter Monica, and friends Marcia Ceppos, Kaari and Molly Meng, and Cathy Mogul. Kaari, that fearless intrepid one, organized a grand excursion for 16 women, involving an eighteenth century chateau, an antique hat factory, flea markets and brocantes, and food and wine that made us all swoon with sheer pleasure. All of this, and a huge studio room for all of us to work together to create beautiful things.
I was invited to teach several classes there, and the women in my class made wonderful hand bound books, printed on a tiny letterpress, and dipped vintage flowers in beeswax and wove them into crowns. Monica taught us to print antique style photographs called cyanotypes,
and we spent a whole day in the meadows dying antique fabrics with and ancient blue dye.
Kaari brought wonderful vintage beads and all went home with a bracelet of french charms.
All these parts, as in all fantastic voyages, added up to so much more than I can explain - six months later I am still wondering at the deeper meaning in my week at the Chateau Dumas.
I brought home with me some renewed sense about what I want and need out of life - some sense of magic - and the energy to find it, in small and large ways, in my everyday life.
I will return to this post tomorrow, to add pictures and write a bit more.

6 comments:

Pretty Widow said...

Nice to read about your fantastic trip - it sounds delightful. Will you be holding a holiday open house this year in Port Costa? I went a few years ago and it was almost as delightful as a trip to France!

Peggy said...

Wendy, so thrilled to see a new post on your blog ~ what a lovely time you must have had. Your home and shop look so festive in Victoria this month ~ I just wanted to be able to keep turning the pages and see more and more and more. Can never get enough of your gorgeous shop and home. Peggy

Anonymous said...

extraordinary, Wendy.
"One day, through a half open gate, we see..."
Kenneth Simpson

Anonymous said...

extraordinary, Wendy.
"then one day, through a half open gate, we see..."
Kenneth Simpson

molly said...

i feel the same way. still so much i've yet to write about it. still thinking about details. every day i see the crown i made in your class and i STILL can't believe i made it. i owe it to the amazing energy you three brought to the trip. thanks.

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