Rose

Promesses silencieuses
De je ne sais quel bonheur
Je te regarde et cela suffit

Poem and sculpture by Jean-Philippe Richard, Jardin Exotique, Eze.

the last sunday in october

I don't know where you've gone

Sir

Or where you're going

Sir

But I don't like it not one little bit

Sir.



And giving me one back tonight will not repair

For all the ones you've stolen while I slept


And read

And learned

And danced

And thought

And felt

And dreamt


Sir.


And so for future reference

(if you care for my well-being)

I would like it better

Sir

If you would just slow down a little

Sir

So I can sleep read learn dance feel think dream

Breathe

A little


More

Sir.

ché posto splendido per costruire un villaggio!

Once upon a time, someone looked at this isolated pile of rock and shrubbery and thought, "What a wonderful place to build a village!"

Thousands of years later, Saorge clings tenaciously to its mountain in the Roya Valley, defying reason and, from some angles, gravity.

The yellow building perched precariously above the olive trees is -- to no one's alarm but my own -- a primary school.


Saorge is only one of many stops along the train line that runs northwest from Nice to Tende, the last stop in Provence before the border.


Of course it hasn't been that long since this entire area was past the border. Most of this corner of France was annexed from the Italian Dukes of Savoie in 1860, but Tende only became French in 1947.

1947!

This detail of history explains many things.


It explains the omnipresence of Italian names in the hilltop graveyard.

It explains the trenitalia train that took us a few stops towards Ventimiglia.

It explains the delicious fresh mozzarella, tomato and basil sandwiches we picked up at the bakery for lunch.


Maybe even the vespacar?

More of TSL's photos here.