Author: jenimcmillan

“I am restless. The creative urge is everything. The medium is secondary.”

Bohemian Throwback

This is the room that I launch my next expeditions from. The contents of my backpack are spread across the bed. The grime from my travel day is down the plug hole and my undies are drying on a string in the backyard. The television is way too loud but I need to immerse myself in the language and this simple house in a French allotment is the perfect place to do it.

My friend is in the garden, digging white stones out of a growing trench in the sun-touched lawn. This is a foundation for a solid fence, one that will keep the neighbours from turning on his turf. I’d welcome them in to tea on the terrace and read poetry aloud but that’s where we’re different. I’m the bohemian throwback and he’s the retired gendarme.

Flight

There’s a cooler wind at my heels. My wings are being lifted in the direction of Dordogne where sunflowers tilt to the passing sun and chickens wander freely across fields interrupted by copses of young oak trees and 400 year old farm houses. My mission is to prepare documents for my Long-Stay Visa (Carte de Séjour) and re-visit the relics of a past life.

The Illusion

Jet-lag has subsided a degree or two but the temperature in Paris is still simmering. I meet a friend and we walk the day into the night. My French is rusty. Her English fabulous. Before long we are contemplating ways to exchange countries. The lure of another culture and landscape pulls like a French bulldog on a snappy lead.

Sweltering In Paris

I took the leap. Australia is behind me and a steaming Paris day ahead. My backpack is carefully loaded with sixteen kilos of everything I think need for the year ahead… or perhaps it two? I have my tent, sleeping bag, and a half-sized inflatable mat in anticipation of adventures. My sketchbook, my camera, my Macbook are stowed inside, along with a change of clothes and my toothbrush. The Long Stay Visa was a nightmare but PTS is good enough reason to skip the details – unless you press me. Sharing Tips is part of the package. A solo traveller needs all the help she can get.

    Stepping Lightly

    Being truly, madly and passionately in Love with the Earth takes a bold and beautiful soul.

    It was an idea. That was all. Why not? Everyone else was doing it. Perhaps that was good enough reason not to. But Climate Change was kicking in big time. How could I travel and still step lightly on the Planet?