From Ceret, With Love

Writing adventures in a French Village

A street in Céret, France. (All photos from the author.)

Dear Lovies,

Hello from Céret, France, where this love letter is coming to you from. I’m don’t know what time it will be when you get this in your inbox, but I do know it won’t be the usual time. Between the time difference from here to my home (nine hours) and the fact that I usually schedule my newsletters ahead, my timing is confused.

But I am here! (Even though last minute obstacles arose.) And here’s where I am writing you from this morning, the kitchen of one of the three houses we are staying in. (It wasn’t quite light yet when I started this missive.)

And below is the view from the deck up those steps. (Those mountains are the Pyrenees Orientale, and that was taken last night as the sun started to set.)

We arrived on Thursday, and even with a couple of days to settle it, it was still hectic getting everybody here and settled. Today was the first workshop morning and my co-leader Debbie and I were eager to dive in with the great group of women we have with us. We have writers from the Pacific Northwest, San Diego, Minnesota, and Miami/Istanbul. And, of course, our marvelous guest writer, Angela Sanders. We had a few hiccups, as happens with international travel and lodging in small French villages. Bad beds, confusion over how to operate showers, no milk for the coffee (not an issue for me but definitely for some of the others) and so on. Nothing terrible but one must be comfortable to do one’s best work, right?  We took some time to sort that and then got going. We have memoir and novel writers here and a couple people who just want to get back into the flow of their work.

In a few minutes I’ll walk into town, which will take all of two minutes, maybe three, and meet with my teaching partner Debbie to discuss tomorrow’s workshop. (While we always have a general idea of what we are going to teach, we also like to individualize our sessions to what our students need.) There’s a book fair in town which I didn’t get any pictures of because I was carrying home two boxes of takeaways from my lunch—that which I couldn’t finish and a salad for a writer who isn’t feeling well. Update: here is a photo of the book fair.

And here are photos from my solo lunch. The rest of the group went out to a fancier place but I wasn’t that hungry and wanted something quick so I could get back and write this. And, honestly, even as extroverted as I am, a peaceful lunch people watching and enjoying the breeze in the plane trees was what I needed.

I feel like I should have deep thoughts to share with you about all this, but I don’t. It’s too soon and I’m still tired and yadda yadda yadda. I should also have deep thoughts about writing, but again, nope nope. So I will close with some random photos of Ceret, with the grand finale pic being that of Jeremiah, the sparkly sea turtle who is along on this journey courtesy of my granddaughter.

Okay, never mind. The wifi in this house keeps dropping out so no gallery of random photos. But here’s Jeremiah, I hope.

Phew, he made it. That’s a sea turtle for you. (Dig the crazy wallpaper behind him. It’s the decor in my bedroom for the week. Jeremiah is not so sure how he feels about it.

I should also have my usual sections of articles and resources, and books, but I don’t. Not sure what will be happening next week, or what my timing will be, but I’ll do my best to send you something!

Love, light, and good writing,

Charlotte

P.S. It’s now almost six PM and I’m just finishing this up before I go to dinner, so it has become almost a step-by-step log of my day.

P.P.S. I hope you all are doing well. Leave a comment and let me know.