Time Does Seem to Stop

 Sitting down at the corner cafe on the Esplanade time seems to have stopped. The same balding man with the crooked tooth smile waves to me. It's been three months, but he doesn't seem to have noticed I was even missing.

The black rattan chairs and wooden cafe tables have't moved since the last time we sat in them for our cafe creme. The quietness of lunchtime makes me wonder if life will always be this way. Has it always been and will it remain so.

Returning to Uzes after only been removed for 3 months seems so surreal. Did we actually live her for 3 years? Or was it a dream? The beauty of the countryside with the changing green, yellow and red vineyards is breathtaking. The tall poplar trees with leaves as big as a baby's head shimmer with gold. The narrow two lane roads that wind from town to town are wide open with only a few cars in sight.

I'm so struck by the calmness of living in a place where there is room to breathe, places to walk and cafe's to sit in; where the sun is warm and the people appear relaxed more often than not.

Very few places are as beautiful as the French countryside -- and it doesn't matter what time of year it is. It is always stunning. Life is lead in a tight little circle. Fifteen minutes here, fifteen minutes there. Time for a cafe - oh of course, why not?

i'm struck in Marin by the crowds, the number of people living in my hometown, the rush, the traffic, the way of talking to each other. It is growing on us, we are getting used to it. But do we want to is the bigger question.

Uzes appearing smaller than I remember it was perfect for our time off. St. Quentin was the perfect village and yet I could see that we are moving into a new passage in life, a new place that we don't know yet. 

Not to far away however as I want to come back and sit in the cafe and have the balding man wave to me as if I haven't been gone as if I still belong whenever we do return.