cote d’azur, blackberries

Matisse Museum, Nice, Cote d’Azur | Photo credits Capitan Lau Rios

Just got back from the Cote d’Azur with mes poules this weekend. The picture above is me in front of the Matisse Museum on a mountainside in Nice, France. It was gorgeous hot weather on Saturday and we spent much time basking, sun-giddy, dehydrated, undersleeped, and laughing so much. I’m always struck by how the light in the south of France makes everything look like a photograph from the 1970s that’s been sitting in an open album for years and years. When I was there with J. a few weeks back we snuck ticketless onto a train in Boulouris on a misty greygreen afternoon and then walked along the coast road to the Villa St. Anne, and the whole time I felt like I was ten again, smelling pollen and sea air and hearing Renaults passing, making that nice rushing sound cars make when they flash by you on a wet road.

Kurt Vile – Blackberry Song

This song is just how that kind of day feels. In case you’re keeping a spreadsheet of the songs I post on this blog and the varying sorts of sentimentality I attach to them, Kurt Vile always makes me nostalgic and painfulhappy (something I cultivate, for better or worse). Getting pricked when picking blackberries just makes it that much nicer when their tangy dark juice stains your lips.

Summer is coming!