The Beauty of Autumn-Walks in the french Alps- Fall 19th Century Reading

Weekend for La Toussaint and the Day of the Dead, I visited my mother and my siblings in Savoie in the Alps in our little village called Tournon, where I grew up and where I lived till my early 20s. And at this time of the year, the colors, the cold, the season makes it very special At the top of the village there is the ruins of an old tower built in the 11th century by La Maison de Savoie special. because La Savoie was only very recently part of France and at this time it was an independent territory. There is something majestic and perfectly enchanting in this view at this time of the year with the mountains, the colors of the trees, the castle, the cows, the old church... I used to live with my family in the old school because my mother was the village teacher for quite many years. The castle seems to be empty now. The baron who lived there and who owned the castle, him and his ancestors for centuries, has recently passed away but I hope they are not going to sell it. The old church and its rococo altarpiece from the 18th century and the miracles grotto who healed a disabled little girl in the late 19th century. It's just moving to see these little children, with their nice aprons and caps, their nice clothes, thinking they are all gone and were gone a long time ago, and they were just little children in this photo. I adore autumn, I love its healing, comforting power, the delicious dance. The colors, the colder temperature, and the scent of wood fire because in this valley people mainly heat their home with wood and it smells so nice. I walked in the field with Lamartine in my bag as Lamartine celebrated autumn so beautifully, it was a season he adored too. Lamartine is a bit special, I mentioned him already in video last spring. My grandmother was not a big reader. But among the books I have from her, there were two novels by Lamartine that I think she got from the different schools where she was a teacher too, because she was a teacher and they seem to have belonged to these schools. And Lamartine is the French Lord Byron. He was a writer, a poet mainly, a politician, a diplomat. He has done a lot of things in his life. He's a very interesting figure. And my approach to him and his work is special because he talks and he writes a lot about Thank you. I have lived, or I know, which are in the Alps, like La Savoie, he talks a lot about Lyon too, where I lived for 15 years, and he adored nature, he celebrated nature and autumn so well in his poetry and in his books, and he was a vegetarian, which was really unusual at the time, and until 12 years old, he never ate. Any meat at all and it was back in 1802. And in the book I already showed last spring, actually, the book starts on November 2. C'est aujourd'hui le 2 novembre, le jour qu'on appelle à la campagne le jour des morts. Quand je suis libre, je passe ce jour dans le recueillement à Saint-Point, le plus près possible du petit cimetière du village. Pendant cette courte et frissonnante journée de l'automne, Je m'efforce de n'être distrait par aucun commerce avec les vivants, du commerce silencieux de mon âme avec les âmes de ceux qui ne sont plus. Je m'égare à plaisir dans les sentiers les plus ténébreux des bois. L'heure du chant pour moi, c'est la fin de l'automne. Ce sont les derniers jours de l'année qui meurent dans les brouillards et dans les tristesses du vent. La nature, âpre et froide, nous refoule alors au-dedans de nous-mêmes. C'est le crépuscule de l'année. C'est le moment où l'action cesse au-dehors. Mais l'action intérieure ne cessant jamais, il faut bien employer à quelque chose ce superflu de force qui se convertirait en mélancolie dévorante, en désespoir et en démence si on ne l'exhalait pas en prose ou en vers. Bless him who invented writing, this conversation of man with his own thought, this way of relieving him of the weight of his soul. First talking about Lamartine, who is not very well translated in English, he is Our French, Lord Byron, but he was also a politician, diplomat, he did a lot of things, so he had a, yes, an important career and he's a very important character in the history of literature in France in the 19th century. He knew Balzac, Victor Hugo, and all of that, he wrote a lot of poetry, but also his prose, I really like it, it's mainly self-centered text, we could say, it talks mainly about his childhood, his life, his trips, his traveling, his thoughts. I really love it, it's so well written, and as I was saying, it's connected to a lot of places I know, where I lived, connected to places where my ancestors lived too, so it's, to me it's really really really interesting. It makes him extra interesting, which wouldn't be so relevant for other people in France who are not really familiar with these little places, especially when he talks about places in a sort of glamorous way, because he's travelling there for the first time, in the Alps, and Nowadays, they are not very trendy. I think you can find Graziella, which is recently republished, re-translated. If you are just interested, it's a short text about his... I think six months he spent in Italy, something like that, when he was around 18 years old and it's an embellished version of a chapter of his life. And the other one is 25 years of my life, which I think is a part of his memoirs. If you are just interested in these sort of memoirs, yes, diaries, sort of self-centered texts if you will, but I love that, I absolutely adore. And I'm going to re-read the one of my grandmother, which I read not that long ago, but I want to re-read them now that I'm fully interested in exploring his work, so. As I didn't have the time. To sew much last spring for this special weekend I took some sewing with me. So I finished eventually this winter skirt I started last winter which was made with some fabric belonging to a great aunt and she never did anything with this fabric so it was nice to use it after all and to turn it into a cloth I can wear. It wouldn't be a fabric I would have chosen but it's a very good quality wool fabric and it's going to be really nice and comfortable now that the colder temperatures are there. In the studio I'm completing the very last parts of the furniture of the dollhouse. I still had some parts to finish so this is what I'm doing these days. The temperature has really dropped over here, it's really almost wintery which I really like but it's yes it's just serious autumn so it's the reason I also keep my autumnal decor a little longer and I wanted to thank all those who joined the new workshop the Witch Cat and the Pumpkin tassel which is an autumnal workshop and I'm very glad that a lot of beginners are joining it. I mean among the people who are joining in there are a lot of people who have never ever worked with paper or sculpted something in paper so it's really nice and I look forward to see your progress and to meet you for those who will join our course. So if you want to join it you can do it till November 16th but the opening offer with 30% off is just about to end on November 5th. So you have the link just under it in case you want to have more information and see if it's for you. And I also wanted to say that the Christmas Cats Stationery, which is a printable little collection of different elements, which includes some gift tags, some notepads, correspondence paper with the envelopes, and you have some printed cards which will be shipped to you. So you have the lady cat in her sleep, right on the other side, and you have the gentleman cat with his candle and his cage, and the little geese, and you can also write on the other side what you need to write. So those, you receive them. In your postal box and the rest you have instant access and you can print them as many times as you need. And the spring one which was the one I created for the spring season inspired by spring fairy tale, it comes with these two cards and you can also receive them in your mailbox when you get the collection and the rest is also a printable, different printable elements and here you have an excerpt of the text. and on the side of each card and you have the King of Rum which is another fairy tale by Madame Danois and you have a little excerpt so they're a bit different but those are also available and you will find the link and just under this video and there is a presentation video of everything so you can see everything in details. I wish you a beautiful beginning of November and I will see you very soon and don't forget to subscribe if you don't want to miss Don't miss all the nice videos coming! Thank you, I will see you soon.