Heroes Not Zombies

How do you like to spend Sunday afternoon?

I took this photo many years ago on a Sunday afternoon in the Jardins du Luxembourg. I loved that day strolling aimlessly along the paths and settling down onto one of the distinctive Fermob chairs (you can’t buy them in this green colour, that’s reserved for Paris, and you can’t buy them in the blue which is reserved for Nice, but I bought some red ones for my garden)

If you live in a country where you get snow you’ll know that sensation of waking up and knowing it’s snowed outside. You know before you look because it’s a very distinctive sound of silence. Well here in rural France Sundays have a particular sound of silence too. It’s not the same as a world covered with snow silence but it’s a silence you quickly learn is the kind you get on a Sunday. I don’t think I realised that such different silences were possible.

The sound of a Sunday here is largely down to an absence of activity in the vineyards. People are resting.

Sunday afternoons are still a down time here. All the shops and businesses are closed.

There is an Italian phrase I learned once – “dolce fa niente” – which I believe translates as “doing sweet nothing”. I think that’s something to aspire to, and for many of us, it’s most likely to be achieved on a Sunday afternoon.

Which reminds me of a song by the Kinks about Sunday afternoon. You know it?