my heart is heavy

 

My last day arrived, with blue skies and sunshine. I headed out from the haute ville to the main city shopping centre, via Carrfour. Everyday as I have passed this supermarket there have been two men sat outside begging ( one with a beautiful dog). So today I swerved inside, bought 2 packs of sandwiches, 2 coffees, ( with sugar sachets) 2 bottles of water, 2 apples and  some dog food ( with a ring pull tin). I came out and handed each man the food. The man with the dog asked me if I was English and then had a full on conversation with me in English. He thanked me for my kindness and for the dog food, he said he normally shared what food he got with the dog ( Artus) and that  it was lovely that he had his own food. Again he thanked me.

I walked up the street in tears, mainly because I know that lots of us could well be  4/5 pay slips away from this position. Life can be very hard.

I managed to compose myself before hitting Galleries Lafyette and Monoprix, where I realised that I have more than enough of things that I need, and spent a good part of the morning just browsing.

I walked back to the Haute Ville to prepare to go home, 

Back through the tiny cobbled streets that have become so familiar to me over the last few days

I had coffee and a madaleine in the local Tabac , and  then headed for a final walk around the botanical gardens,

I spent half an hour sitting under a fabulous tree canopy just watching the world go by, listening to the chatter of locals and observing life in a small city with a wonderfully slow pace.

Before I knew it, it was time to bid farewell to my little apartment and the lovely Valentina, 'la femme de menage ( the cleaning lady) who had been kind to me over my stay. ( fresh towels every day and leaving me little treats) I gave her a box of chocolates. She had arranged a lift to the airport for me, it turned out to be her niece, Anna Maira , who is training to be a doctor and was so very lovely.

Anna Maira dropped me off, and in the blink of an eye my mini break was over, without a broken nose, or ride in a police car involved at all. In fact in light of how my previous breaks have gone, this was very boring!!!

I arrive back and collected my car, and drove up the A1 home.

And today I am back to the day job............but only for a few weeks.