Living the Dream

How often have you spoken the phrase “living the dream” and meant it to describe yourself? Hopefully, it’s often, right? For the next two weeks, we are living the dream. After considerable planning and an avalanche of anticipation, we have arrived in Collioure at the southwestern tip of France’s Mediterranean coast.

We have rented a house that might even raise the eyebrows of Brad and Angelina. It is located up in the hills that slide down into the Mediterranean Sea and is reachable only by a steep and tortuous ascent up a rocky and rutted path for cars and foot traffic alike with barely any signage that announces its existence. The house was first built in the 1700s and then added on to in the 1800s, and is now gorgeously updated for 21st century living. It is all stone -- the floors, many of the walls, sometimes giving it a cave-like subterranean feel. The many overhead spotlights bring it all to life. There are rough hewn timbers - sometimes entire tree trunks -- bolstering the ceilings. Befitting such an old and quirky house, each of its 5 bedrooms sit seemingly on different levels lending a sort of maze-like quality to the place. The couches are so deep two people can sleep on them (as two of the younger members of our group did). The Steinway baby grand piano awaits those more talented than we are. The stone sunroom has a long, gorgeous table that is cut from one huge slab of a tree complete with a million knots and age rings. It seats at least 13 and is impossible to lift. An apricot tree sits at our front door providing us with its delicious treats. There is a pool steps from the house, its floor tiled in a way that adds to the sparkle already provided by the sun. And, all this sits on a 23 acre private estate providing much room to roam and explore.

Sitting down the hill from us looms the most charming of chateaux, Disney-like in its appearance, rising above the surrounding vineyards like a mirage. Cinderella’s home, no doubt. And, the skies! They are the bluest of blues. As Henri Matisse said a century ago, “No sky in all France is bluer than that of Collioure. I only have to close the shutters of my room and there before me are all the colors of the Mediterranean.”

Five of us went to the market today and we returned with twenty bottles of wine and food to suit your every fancy. Lily and Maggie teamed up to create some fabulous homemade hummus which they served to us at the pool with incredibly flavorful local, herbed olives, baguettes, and chopped vegetables.

I mean, really, does it get much better than this?