Passing through, sometimes happy, sometimes blue

I have left Pau yesterday. The autumn weather has been cold and wet lately and the mountains were already snowclad when I left my empty apartment.

After over three years in charge of the administration of subsidy requests from local farmers, I have seized a new job opportunity.

From my time in the Southwest of France, I will particularly miss: 

My parents' country house only 1 hour and 40 minutes' drive away. It was particularly easy to pop over for the weekend and enjoy their company, my mother's home-cooked food and the ocean nearby.

The farmers' market in Pau and all its delicious fresh food at very competitive producer prices.

The Pyrenees mountains just one hour away. In winter I could be on the ski slopes in just over an hour from leaving home. In all other seasons I wandered through the network of footpaths crossing only a few human beings, but lots of free-grazing cows and sheep. I might even have been spied upon by a lone wild wolf on the Rey mountain one August day in 2019. Overall, I managed never to come back on a path I had already walked on during these past three years. Walking through the hills and mountains has been a rejuvenating experience, especially for my mind - very often absorbed by my job's responsibilities.

I start my new job tomorrow teleworking from my parents' country house while I wait for a visa and a plane ticket to reach my next destination...

Passing through

Leonard Cohen, Live songs, Columbia