Amazingness

It’s like osmosis. If you stick something in water, all the water cells on the inside splurge out the semi-permeable membrane and join the water on the outside. When living in this place, the amazing and beauty of the area lures out the amazing and beautiful qualities of the people.



We had an amazing lunch at L’Oumide. (It’s a beautiful restaurant perched in the middle of rolling vineyards, complete with a horizon of tiny orange clay houses and green shutters and azure Mediterranean Sea. But that’s beside the point.) Halfway through eating our stuffed tomatoes, squash and onions, my grandfather came out with yet another witty one liner that sent us all into laughter. His hilarity had been beaming all afternoon; forcing us to spit out our wine and struggle to keep our smiles in check when he was being “bratty” with my grandmother.

“See,” she said to me as we filled the empty restaurant with a roar of laughter, keeping her eyes lovingly on her husband of 50-some-odd-years. “Can you ever remember your grandfather having a sense of humor like this before?”

And I thought about it. I thought about all the time I had spent with this wise, admiral French man and thought of all the words I used to use to describe him. Intellectual. Hard working. Cultured. And he was famous for having an impeccable taste in food and wine. But regardless, “funny” wasn’t one that came to mine. A sharp wit, maybe. Possibly even a dry sense of humor. But nothing like this… like a stand up comic, as we later teased him.

My grandmother will blame (along with many other new quirks) his new love of laughter, teasing and joking on the stroke he suffered some years ago. She’s probably right. Though we feared for his life and overall state of living, his near-death experience enriched his world to a point none of us could have ever imagined. He can still travel and play golf (probably his most favorite two passions), and though he may get a little sloppy on one side after several bottles of wine – there are no other physical indications tell he was ever rushed to the hospital for -. But we have all grown closer to this man we used to just love and admire from a distance; we’ve found he has a sense of humor that may outwit the rest.



I’ve been busy doing nothing with my grandparents and their friends, the Wades. I’ve learned a lot about my family, about Laurent & Elizabeth Michel, about this world. It’s amazing, full of amazing people. And Camarat brings that out the most.