En Bretagne

I now know that there is a reason that I chose to study the French language. Every part of this country calls me to return. Wants me to stay. I first fell in love in vineyard valleys in the South of France and returned to absorb the cosmopolitan façon de vivre in Paris. I am currently in the marin coast of Bretagne (Brittany), in which I overlook a boat-lined harbor filled with cafés and crêperies offering mussels, oysters, and other fruits de la mer (the specialty of the region).

A few days ago, I started reading, A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway. A Moveable Feast is Hemingway's personal memoirs and stories of his life in Paris as a young and unknown artist and writer who is (also) inspired by the beauty of the French lifestyle. Hemingway explains his experiences with such honest simplicity that I feel is the true ésprit to this country.

"But Paris was a very old city and we were young and nothing was simple there, not even poverty, nor sudden money, nor the moonlight, nor right and wrong nor the breathing of someone who lay beside you in the moonlight".

As I began reading his work, I found myself overcome with emotion. Here I was reading a passage about the Luxembourg Gardens, while I was, myself, sitting on a bench overlooking the fountains of the Jardins du Luxembourg. There seems to be a collective spirit in Paris; many of his journeys and observations in the Place St. Michel and cafés on the Boulevard St. Germain I had previously made during my séjours in Paris. I now understand why so many Americans are draw to this particular city in Europe. This "hunger" for Paris can only be found when you, yourself can walk along its streets and find a home in one of its intimate cafés.

I honestly do not know why I chose to start taking French. Maybe it was a calling of sorts. That I needed to live and explore in this country. By the end of this summer I will have collectively spent a year in France (between the time before I started at Middlebury and during this semester abroad). While I know that this part of my journey is almost over. I know I will return. I must return.