ode to thee

source: you had me at bonjour

I know I left you guys on a cliffhanger with my last post, but there's just something else I want to say today and I promise to tell you all about my move next time. However, I will leave you a clue... I am staying in Provence. 

I'm feeling mighty blessed.

When I started this blog, I did so merely as a means to keep me sane, something to keep me busy when I first moved to The LPV two years ago. I had never even read a blog before and I had no idea of what I expected to happen. I definitely didn't expect that I would meet people and make friends, but I did and that's what this here today is all about.

You see, yesterday I received a package in the post from Ireland. I opened it up to find a lovely note and bags upon bags of Barry's Tea from Sharon of La Vie en Rose. Sharon is Irish, therefore Sharon knows that the only tea that really matters is Barry's and she also knows that little old me, living here in The LPV, can't get Barry's, so Sharon not wanting me to suffer through life without a decent cuppa, sent me some (if any of you even think of mentioning Lyons Tea, well to this I say hogwash).

And those tea bags got me thinking about this blog and all of the wonderful things that have come from it, so I thought I'd write something dedicated to my blog and to you, because without you, it would just be me, typing to myself, and that would be sad.

A few months after I started this blog, I received an email from a French girl named Sophie. Sophie had recently moved back to France after years in the U.S. and feeling a little bit homesick, decided to reach out to another homesick girl. We started emailing and occasionally skyping, and then one day, since Sophie is a French teacher, she said; why don't I help you with your French, and I said OK and that is how Sophie became La Professeur. And last weekend, The Husband and I paid a visit to Sophie and Sophie introduced us to Stellina Pizza, home of last year's world champion pizza maker (I had the Pizza Abruzzo... porcini mushroom cream sauce, fresh tomatoes, and a drizzle of truffle cream sauce… I'm still dreaming about it). So without this blog, I never would have met the world champion French teacher, and the world champion pizza maker. Thank you blog.

Remember when all of my china and Waterford that had been shipped from Dublin arrived shattered? I do. But besides the heartbreak of discovering all of those broken memories, I learned how supportive and loving the blogging community was. Not only did I receive 62 comments of support, encouragement, and advice, but a few days after, a package arrived in the post. Inside was a book called The Bronze Horseman. A girl named Bec had sent it with a note. The note said that she was so sorry for the loss of my crystal and china and if the same thing had happened to her she would curl up and cry, and when something does make her want to curl up and cry, she reads her favorite book, The Bronze Horseman, to make her feel better, so she thought it might make me feel better too. And it did. Not only did it become one of my favorite books ever, but Bec became one of my favorite people, and we met and became great friends and spent great times together, until she moved back to Australia (now we have great chats together on skype). Thank you blog.

Then a couple of months later when my Dad passed away, you guys were there. I was far from home, and your comments of love and warm thoughts and prayers meant more to me than you will ever know, then I ever thought. Thank you blog.

And of course there's Aidan. Without my blog I never would have met that other Texas girl who moved to Ireland before moving to the South of France. Sometimes I don't even think it's possible that we've only known each other for a little over a year because she feels so much like family. She's become my big sister and she makes living in France a lot easier and a whole lot more fun (even if her dog did eat my glasses). Thank you blog.

Then there's all of you. All of my blog friends, some I've met, some I haven't, but all friends. You have made my life here in The LPV so much more exciting. Because of you I write. Because of you I don't view any strange, inconvenient, or bizarre occurrence here as an annoying pain in the petunia, I now see it as a story, a tale to tell, and it helps me grin and bare the sometimes difficult times of being an expat in a teeny tiny village on top of a mountain in France. Thank you blog.

And thank you too. 

bisou

P.S. Oh, and one more thing... because of this blog, Fifty now believes he is a celebrity and can be rather difficult to live with at times, so yeah, thank you blog.