Hi Everyone!
I don't know about you, but when I got a message from Corey,
asking me to consider doing a guest post on her blog,
well… I had just finished reading about Rebecca the Metropolitan Opera singer in NYC,
and thought… how do I follow that?
Then I read about Jennifer in New Zealand,
and again, I'm thinking… how do I follow that?
Then I gave up.
What could possibly be of interest to Corey's readers about my life?
And besides, she probably wrote to all her followers,
so she will never miss me.
WRONG!!
Yesterday I got a little "reminder" that she would love to hear from me.
Oh dear… well, here goes…
I'm an American, living in the South of France.
Maybe that's interesting?
I landed here about twelve years ago, with my work.
I work for CRU, a Christian organization, doing
Leadership Development Consulting, from a Christian point of view.
It's been gratifying.
I'm NOT looking forward to retiring and moving back to the USA.
I love living in Europe and have actually lived most of my life
in Germany, Russia, and now France.
They say we become "third culture" people
not quite American anymore,
and not completely European.
I've experienced that whenever I go home to Florida/Michigan each year-
well, not in 2020.
An artist's drawing of my village: Cagnes–sur–Mer.
It's a charming village, on the Mediterranean,
complete with fishing boats and palm trees on the main avenue.
Not far from my village is the Principality of Monaco.
This is the inside of their main shopping mall at Christmas, 2019.
There's a stark comparison. That's interesting.
How did I meet Corey?
I met Corey once, many years ago, when I first arrived here.
I was researching blogs about France, and up popped "Tongue in Cheek".
I LOVE antiques so I called Corey and arranged to meet up.
She was doing a sale in her friend's home,
so it was the perfect afternoon excursion.
While there, I found a beautiful old (obviously!)
painting of some lilacs,
a still life, with a dark, smokey patina.
It jumped off the wall, into my arms, and a good thing too,
because just as I was paying for it,
Corey's husband Yann mentioned
that he was eyeing it for his office.
Sorry, Yann.
Life in the South of France has had its ups and downs.
The ups are the friends, the wine, the food,
the sunshine and the sea!
The downside is that I've been fighting uterine cancer
for the last twenty months.
Right now, feeling really well.
And thankful every day that I was able
to get my cancer treatments here in France
where healthcare is affordable and high quality.
Here I am wearing my "chemo shirt",
made by a friend, with a velcro "pocket"
covering my chemo port –
this way you don't have to take your shirt off
to get chemo.
Brilliant!
Despite Covid19 in 2020,
I'm living every day to the fullest… as best I can.
In September I went back to Venice Italy
for a wonderful week-long vacation.
I LOVE Venice and have been there six times since 2018.
It only costs about $60 round trip to fly there from here!
If I could, when I retire,
rather than return to the USA,
I would move to Venice.
But that's probably just a pipe dream.
I would do it in a minute if the
the opportunity presented itself.
My Christmas flight there got canceled,
so we'll see what happens in 2021.
Follow Cy on FaceBook
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