Creating community these last few days in Amboise has been absolutely soul filling. From meeting with Mark and Pamela to touring places I fell in love with long ago, the moments have transformed France and the Loire Valley. It shifted from a place that I fell in love with and wrote into a novel into a community of people with whom I’ve found deep connection and comfort.
Going Back In Time to Create Community
All of this began yesterday. I made plans to meet up with the couple who I stayed with the last time I was here.
They and their home inspired a whole secondary location and character in Woman On The Wall. More than that, though, Philippe and Marie are just lovely. They invited me into their home, broke open the champagne, even gave me a tour of the bullet holes left behind in the walls of their house by Nazi bullets.
I was beyond thrilled to see them again. The studio that they rent is truly a writer’s dream and I really enjoyed their immense hospitality on my travels in 2019. Reconnecting in this way—having actually used the location as the basis for a setting in the story. Simon is, in many ways, based on Philippe—is something I never imagined possible. Their home ended up being the home of Simon and Yara in the novel. And, even though I had never been inside until this visit, it was very much as I had imagined it to be. So amazing.
We shared many stories about family and travels. They tested my French, which was very much only so-so. Walking the grounds of their home again sent tingles down my spine.
Returning to the beginning of it all is kind of like a fairytale, with sweet new friends.
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