Provence travel log 2006-12-26 (Lauren)

Due to some early programming of my internal clock upon first coming to Alliens, every morning I start listening for the church bells, as I have no alarm clock to tell me thetiome. The first bells I count ring at 5:00, and I count each ring; and then I wake again every hour to count the bells until seven.

Upon first awakening this morning, I had the impression that I was looking at a mirror placed at the foot of my bed. The gauzy white curtains that hang on the pretty iron bedframe also hang from the neighboring bed -- they are like twins sitting beside one another in my lavender room; The couple's two little girls must have slept in this room together.

But when I awoke this morning, the symmetrical shape of the hanging set made me think that I was looking at some sort of mirror in the grey light, and thus I began the day with a sense of wonder.

Let me tell you what a frosted leaf looks like. Brown and brittle, it sits so encrusted in ice that its edges end in tiny white points -- delicate, sharp, and lovely.

Let me tell you about the sky tonight. It is so clear that the stars became multilayered -- not a mere flat cloth canopy over the earth, but a collection of candles that range from near to far and thus shine with varying intensities of light -- the brightest stars of Orion's belt and the smallest adding texture.

A night so cold that the people of Alliens have closed tight their windows -- people fall asleep and fall il and fall in love, and you know that if you only watched long enough then you could see a star fall as well --