My Arrival to Provence
May 31, 2013
Applause broke out as the plane began to slow, following a violently turbulent landing onto the Marseille airport runway. The cheers mirrored the feelings of the sheer euphoria I felt within my heart.
After a full 24 hours of traveling all the way from Los Angeles, I couldn’t be happier to be back on the earth. It’s cliché, but I was literally overwhelmed with the urge to throw myself onto the ground and start kissing it.
I held back, of course. But once the doors opened and I stepped into the crisp windy air of Provence, I literally gasped. Gulping in the air as if I had been suffocating.
It felt amazing, feeding the life back into me. I was now able to open my eyes and finally take in the surroundings of this new place that I would be calling home.
May 31, 2013
Applause broke out as the plane began to slow, following a violently turbulent landing onto the Marseille airport runway. The cheers mirrored the feelings of the sheer euphoria I felt within my heart.
After a full 24 hours of traveling all the way from Los Angeles, I couldn’t be happier to be back on the earth. It’s cliché, but I was literally overwhelmed with the urge to throw myself onto the ground and start kissing it.
I held back, of course. But once the doors opened and I stepped into the crisp windy air of Provence, I literally gasped. Gulping in the air as if I had been suffocating.
It felt amazing, feeding the life back into me. I was now able to open my eyes and finally take in the surroundings of this new place that I would be calling home.
Relief swelled through me. Unlike the dreary, cold, gray and space-age like airport that was Charles D’Gaulle in Paris- here there was sunshine! A familiar brightness that reminded me of my home back in Arizona.
Another tsunami-like wave of relief washed over me only minutes later when my host mother, Arlette, was waiting for me at the gate. A tiny woman with a huge smile and a disposition that was as sunny as the rays shining in through the large windows. She couldn’t have been sweeter or more understanding of my tongue-tied and baby gibberish version of the French language that I was nervously sputtering.
A short drive and we had arrived in the heart of Aix. To her home on the second floor a lovely apartment building. Relief again! The door to my room opened to reveal a sun-drenched room, wide glass doors that opened to a petite balcony overlooking tanned red roofed homes, green swaying trees and wild grasses flowing in the gusts of that crisp Provincial air. I liked the dryness of the air.
I breathed it in and again felt an overwhelming happiness. I had made the right choice. From what I’d seen I liked Aix. I liked the quaint feel of the town. I liked how everyone was walking through the streets, women with grocery bags, children playing and men calling out to their friends across the street. I liked its old, historic character. The feeling of stepping into a different time, an age of old. A feeling that I haven’t ever felt anywhere in the United States.
I liked the sound of wind on the window. A peaceful whispering. A French lullaby to sing me straight to sleep…
And sleep I did.
I breathed it in and again felt an overwhelming happiness. I had made the right choice. From what I’d seen I liked Aix. I liked the quaint feel of the town. I liked how everyone was walking through the streets, women with grocery bags, children playing and men calling out to their friends across the street. I liked its old, historic character. The feeling of stepping into a different time, an age of old. A feeling that I haven’t ever felt anywhere in the United States.
I liked the sound of wind on the window. A peaceful whispering. A French lullaby to sing me straight to sleep…
And sleep I did.