Rendezvous with a Horse

Béziers, France

27 July 2024

Dear family and friends,

Saturday morning and a new part of the weekly routine is meeting a horse to drop off my food waist for composting. That’s right, we have a horse that pulls a cart through centre ville and makes four scheduled stops on Wednesday and Saturday mornings for people to drop off their compostable waist.

I questioned the use of a horse for such an endeavor, but somebody did a study and said it was a good thing to do. I’ll just have to trust somebody and not over think it. It’s surprising how much compostable material I accumulate when I’m cooking and eating at home so twice a week works great, and I take the opportunity to do my recycling at the same time.

It’s only been six weeks since I moved in, so routines are just getting established. New kitty litter routines, new trash routines, new feeding time routines, new shopping routines, and new study routines, and perhaps most importantly new heat management routines.

Just to remind you, I live in the historic center of town. The building I live in was built nearly 600 years ago, and because I’m in the historic center on the tiny streets where the shops and tourist are, there are a lot of things that go with that. Like no air-conditioning.  And it’s hot this time of year. The building has very thick stone walls and that’s good for keeping heat out, but those big windows, with old single-pane glass that all needs to be reglazed do not keep heat out. In fact, when the sun hits those windows the apartment heats up quickly. That’s why those shudders on the windows are so important. If I close the shudders before the sun hits the windows, I can keep the temperature inside the apartment to about 80 degrees Fahrenheit on a day that hits 90-95 degrees Fahrenheit. With a couple of fans strategically placed. I can live with that.

In order to make the routine of closing the shudders and windows more efficient I needed to clean up the plant situation on the balconies.  I finally completed that process this week and have been able to get plants into boxes on the railings. It’s late in the season so I didn’t have lots of options when it came to filling them out with flowers, but they will suffice for this year and will give me a good start for next year. The most important thing is I can now close up the windows and shudders in a much timelier manner.

Many of you are thinking, why would you want to do that. I am in a country where I do not know the language, and learning the language does not come easily to me. I am living in building that does not allow me to have some of the comforts I have become used to. I live on a street where there are tourists outside my door all day long. I am in more people’s vacation pictures than I could possibly count.  The street sweeper sounds like it’s circling my bed at 5:45 every morning. Yes, it even makes my bed vibrate. There’s street noise, people noise mainly, at all hours of the day.

Well, it’s not for everyone. And maybe I’ll determine it’s not for me someday. But for now, it’s a pleasant change of pace.  It’s very intentional in some ways, routines become more important and time consuming in many ways, but comforting and productive in other ways.  I am enjoying doing things differently and I’m enjoying a slower pace. I will complain about it forever, but studying French does seem like it’s good exercise for my brain. Yes, I get frustrated with some of the differences of the culture, and yes human nature is still human nature. People are people and not all of them are nice, doesn’t matter what their background is, doesn't matter where they come from, their physical appearance makes no difference, fundamentally we will always find those with whom we enjoy spending time and we will also find those with whom we don’t enjoy spending time.

I find living in this old building fascinating. I am learning more about the building every day. The building was originally a massive square building with a huge inner courtyard. It was divided up centuries ago and it wears the scars of time like epitaphs to those who lived here before those of us who are here today.  Each generation has left its mark on the structure. Some of those marks make no sense to this generation but clearly had purpose at some point in time.

In my apartment alone, I can easily identify elements of the 15th century, 19th century, 20th century and the 21st century. With time I may even identify elements from those missing centuries. I’m sure those centuries are represented; they are just less obvious to me. There are things that I would like to change and eventually I’m sure I will make some changes, but for now I am trying to consider how do I achieve some modern conveniences, like an actual shower, a washer and dryer and dare I dream to have windows that would keep out at least a little bit of the street sweepers rage? And how do I do it in a way that respects and honors the centuries of history that are represented in these walls and floors and ceilings.

It's true, I sometimes sit and look up at that ceiling and I am filled with awe. It’s as much about how did I come to be the custodian of this piece of history, as it is about wondering about the people who have inhabited this space over the nearly 600 years since someone painstakingly painted all of those fruits and vegetables and bows and flowers between those wooden beams.

It's not for everyone, but for now I’m captivated and feel lucky to be here. And yes, Manny and Moe love their balconies. Here they're catching a bit of the evening breeze:

Thinking of you all.  I hope you are staying cool and enjoying your summer!

Bonne Journée !