Hard to believe that last week was my last week at the Chateau! Wow – so interesting to be back out into the wild of the outside world! In all that time I only really spoke to folks with English language skills (mostly) and a majority were women. Who are all these people out on the streets and now I get to stumble over my very limited French and German? YIKES!
In the last week we were focused on clearing up the Chateau after the final guests departed. We did some gardening and some debriefing on the season and a lot of saying goodbye. My last night there was cake and laughter. The team did a group tarot card reading by the first fire in the wood burning stove for me that was amazing. I departed on the same day as the chef who is headed to Spain in October to work at a high-end hostel. And the Social Media volunteer left a couple of days afterward.
I spent a long weekend in Vichy, France which was a two-hour bus ride from the town with the closest train/bus station. I had ridden through the town on the way to Montlucon way back at the end of June and thought it was cute and would be worth spending some time in – and was it ever! It is very reminiscent of Brussels and has some amazing Art Deco architecture. There are beautiful shops and restaurants and great walks by the river next to a park, window shopping and eating something other than French food! I had a couple of nights of pizza and even Indian food on my visit (paneer was a very soft cheese which made it a little weird).
Mostly the time in Vichy was spent transitioning from retreat/Chateau life to “real life”. Getting a sense of what it is like to be alone again after all of that together time. I do love people and chatting with folks and the collaboration of retreat life. However, I have learned that I also need recharge time to be in my own space. It was a great time in Vichy to rediscover that! And now for the last great European adventure – off to Germany to spend a week with Claudia (from my DHL days) and Stefan!
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