TOULON, AVIGNON, THIZY (25/08-7/09/2007)

The south of France is where I landed my first job, way back in 1982. Toulon was then par of my sales territory as a sales rep. and I have many very fond memories from this area. So it is always a pleasure to return to this part of the world each time I am in France. However this time around was a special time, as my friends from my business school, Veronique and Henri were celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary. So not only was this an opportunity to party but also to meet some of my fellow students and mates from way back 25 years ago! Some of us have changed a lot (mostly the boys) and most of the girls have aged gracefully. One thing has not changed though: we took conversation at eh same point we left it …25years ago. There was no talking about job/career, as we now all know that this is not that important in life. Life and what we make of it was the major topic of our conversation. With a rented car from Marseille I introduced Geoff to my favourite spots along the coast on our way to Avignon where my brother now owns and runs a very nice B & B (www.masdecapelou.com), on the island of La Barthelasse in the middle of the Rhone river, right across from Avignon. Highly recommended if ever you plan to stay in this area! I pursued the road to my family home village of Thizy to visit my parents and my grand father who will celebrate his 100 years birthday in November 2009. So this milestone of course set a date to our next return to France: November 2009, less than a year away!!!
It is always nice to spend time with family and friends - and even Edwige, my ex sister in law -
and at the same time very destabilizing to realise that I have seen and done so much in my life since my last visit, whilst here in Thizy, not much at all has changed and the people are still in their same spot doing the same things……
We took advantage of the space and access to tools and timber to build the stretchers Geoff and I were going to need for our respective exhibitions in Paris and headed off to Paris.