Triste

I have very sad news: I lost my camera. It's most likely that it fell out of my bag on Friday night in nearby Périgueux. I searched my friend's apartment extensively, and he asked at the bar we went to if they'd seen it, but to no avail. I'm afraid she's long gone. It's not so much the cost of a new camera that kills me, but the fact that all my pictures this past week were so wonderful. We spent the week at training in Périgueux, where I met lots of new assistants. The city is so beautiful - a huge cathedral sits at the top of a hill, at the bottom of which lies the Dordogne River. There are walking paths on both sides, this time of year shaded by trees with red and gold and orange leaves.

I stayed with the most amazing host family, who lived five minutes outside of town on a beautiful country property. They have rows of their own crops - fig and apple and walnut trees, tomato and cucumber vines, mushrooms sprouting from the ground. We ate unbelievable four-course meals every night - foie gras, truffles, Dublin prawns, French cheeses - all paired with carefully selected bottles of wine. For breakfast I had homemade jams on country bread and a big bowl of coffee. It was a week of food perfection. The family was so sweet. Alain, who is a recently retired middle school principal, went for a run with me in the countryside, took me on historical tours of Périgueux, printed out his favorite French poems for me to read.

So, there might be a bit of radio silence on here. No more pictures to share with you, but I'll have a new camera when my parents come in two weeks.

P.S. I had my piece published in The Literary Bohemian. It's the first one under "Postcard Prose."