Where is Paris?

(If you are reading this post on Bloglines, you might want to click through to Chez Pim for the slideshow.)

Where is Paris again? I seem to have forgotten. I came down to Gascony to visit Kate for the weekend, and now I might be staying forever. Well, perhaps not for ever, but for another week until I have to get back to London.

I am in a stone house dating back to the 1600's, in a charmed room with a view of the garden, the canal, and Kate's lived-in houseboat There's a clawfoot tub in my room, where I take my bath every night before bed, and a round wooden table by the window where I write, inspired by the fog creeping in over the landscape. There's also a door that opens to nowhere, and a fleeting spectre of a lady in white just turning around the corner.

We celebrated Chinese New Year Saturday night, with a charmed circle of friends Kate has cultivated, winemakers, poétesse, playwright, artists, cooks, writers, gardeners, and more. Lucy, having spent a few years working in China, made delightful chinese dumplings (the recipe and detailed instructions can be found on her blog.) I made beggar's rice -or perhaps to be appropriately fortuitous for the new year I should call it generosity rice- which was an impromptu recipe composed entirely of borrowed ingredients.

But for you-know-who waiting for me in California, I might never leave here, ever.