January 2021
The year 2021 kicked off quite poorly. It started with my trip to Ukraine for Christmas-New Year-Christmas holidays but ended up getting THE Virus and instead of seeing friends and enjoying my family, stayed glued to bed for 10 days straight. Xavier’s trip to Ukraine booked for after the Catholic Christmas therefore was cancelled, I had to spend in Kyiv a week longer than I had meant and the first two weeks of January passed with a considerable amount of gloom, tears and disappointment.
And the worst part of it – a total absence of snow, which in Ukraine too occurs with a rising frequency.
That entire introduction was just to make an important point – our reunion was incredibly tender. It was the first time in 8 years that we had to be three weeks apart and we didn’t like it at all. At all. So the moment I returned to France, despite the long-delayed renovation of our flat in Toulouse, we went for a quiet retreat in Ariège, to enjoy each other’s company and, hopefully, to see some snow.
Oh the irony! The perfect snow year in France collided with all the coronavirus restrictions. Thus, cable cars were closed and the ski resorts normally so full of skiers, tourists, kids and – well, life, had something of the apocalypse with the “Life after People” theme. Ax-les-Thermes and Bonascre looked like ghost towns. With all that we got a unique feeling of being the only people on Earth and it was something we truly needed. We walked lazily on the snow, cocooned with a view on the Pyrenees reserved for us only and swam in the oxytocin-waves. So much love and so much beauty.
This view for you and me only
In the World Alone
It was hard to believe that on this very spot last year, in January 2020, we struggled through the crowd to get to the ski cabins. Life is watching closely for any signs of boredom, and when it sees some… Well, it finds its ways of dealing with it.
We booked a room in Les Granges d’Ignaux – a “chambres d’hôte” in a traditional local house with loads of cozy details that capture the spirit of mountains. There are so many pleasures in life and jumping in a huge warm bed after an exhausting day outside and after long hours of a cold wind blowing in your face, is one of the top ten.
No matter how many sunsets one sees in life,
it’s always as beautiful as the very first one.
Morning View
In the morning, we went directly to Plateau de Beille with a touching ambition to have at least any ski experience. No cable cars – fine. We’ll try some cross-country ski, even if it’s been 6 years since our last attempt in Estonia.
Two things were quickly remembered though: why we never pursued this sport even if in Narva it was accessible & affordable and how little it has in common with mountain skiing.
We were pathetic but very happy and the award (hot wine and warm bed!) never was so much welcome.
That was it. A short post, the first one this year, actually. Even if we don’t properly blog anymore (for so many reasons, it would deserve a separate post!), our site remains a training platform for our photography and a photo album that we are willing to share with others.
My Instagram-follower asked me to share the happiest moment of the year, and this little trip that started our year for real came immediately to my mind. I’m writing these lines half a year later. It’s July, it’s Toulouse, our renovation is slowly moving on, and diving into these winter memories was so much refreshing.
Time flies fast though, doesn’t it?
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