And after all the rushing around, can there be anything nicer than pulling up the drawbridge for a few days and luxuriating? I am at my happiest curled up with a present that happens to be a good book, hearing the family around and about in the house but not needing me to do anything. If there's an interesting new scent to enjoy, then that's perfection...
So here I am this afternoon, reading a collection of short stories: French Tales translated by Helen Constantine. Each tale is connected to a different region of France, so that from my armchair I've been to Burgundy with the fabulous Colette; to Provence, of course, with Alphonse Daudet; and on a ghostly train ride through Brittany with Annie Saumont.
And all enveloped in a warm mist of another thoughtful gift: a new scent from Chantecaille called Kalimantan. It's a woody oriental that starts off with top notes of thyme and rosemary, then seems to develop into church incense. There's vanilla and cedar in there too, but not as distinctly. It's like running around the garden in France on bright summer day, then entering a dark dusty chapel.
1 comment:
Sounds like a lovely book - I must get a copy.
Happy 2011 and continued success in your writing.
Vanessa
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