In some ways I am ready to head home, in others I would like to stay and take a year or more to slowly work my way through the country. There is so much of beauty here that needs time to be truly appreciated. I have seen so little and yet I have seen so much that my brain has difficulty processing it all.
I have been to Toulouse, Carcassonne, several small villages in the foothills of the Pyranees (not to forget the raw beauty of those foothills themselves), Avignon and Montpellier. I considered travelling by train to Arles tomorrow morning, but I realized today, while sitting on the stairs of a building in a nearby garden, that I would rather spend more time right here in Montpellier just soaking up the sites and sounds, writing in my journal (which is desparately behind), perhaps wandering the streets just a little more, even taking a few more photos at different times of the day (sunset maybe). Yes, it would be nice to go to Nimes or Arles to take in the Roman ruins, but I think I would rather do that with a friend than alone. And I know I would prefer to destress and relax, rather than to feel like I had to rush, rush, rush.
Tomorrow is for being, for packing, and for saying goodbye. Knowing all the while that I will return. How could I not.
These three weeks have been a time of realization for me. Of growing, changing, and learning to face realities that I would prefer to avoid, but truly can no longer afford to. Sometimes we have to remove ourselves from the world that we know to begin to find out who we are, and sometimes we need to hear truths we would prefer not to from a trusted friend. But, always, whatever the source of the push, we need to continue to grow.
I will miss my days in France walking through the streets of walled cities, roaming through castles, and hiking through rocky, sometimes muddy ground in the green beauty of the foothills of the Pyrannees. I will miss the evening meals in gites and farm houses with the people we hiked with. But I will always have the happy memories and the photos to look back on, and a future of shared reminiscing with friends new and old.
I raise my glass to the friends and memories now, and hope to do so again, in person, sometime soon.
