Who the hell am I and why should you follow this fascinating blog?
This isn’t going to be your mother’s travel blog. Hopefully the following short bio will answer some puzzling questions.
I was born…….what a boring start! Even I would refuse to read further. For 45 years I coached and taught in educational institutions in America. Basketball and Literature - what a combination. Michael Jordan and Geoffrey Chaucer - quite a means of supporting myself and my family. But I was relatively successful, and I left a trail of young students who were either highly motivated or completely confused.
Somewhere along the path I met and married Julie and we raised four kids. But retirement in the US did not offer what we sought, and the political wrangling had become intolerable. So three years ago we migrated across the big water to the southwest corner of France. The Haute Valley of the Aude River has much to offer, and I hope to enlighten you to the advantages of exploring or settling in this lovely area. The people are friendly, the activities are varied, and the cost of living is very reasonable. We are only an hour from the Med and not much farther from Spain.
As a bonus I will share with you my writings - yes, a sneaky way to entice you to purchase my collections of short stories. Also, I have finished a novel based on Dante’s Inferno from which I occasionally will test your patience.
Book Reading in Quillan Village
The Palace Cafe
October is a quiet month in the Aude, and we assumed that the entire year was similarly mundane. Our rental on the Aude River was great, the scenery was spectacular, and the locals we met in businesses were cordial. In an entire month we heard no English spoken. That did not deter us and when we returned to spend three months, we found that over 300 English speakers were among our neighbors. Most are British, but sprinkled among the population are Australians, Kiwis, Scots, Welsh, Irish, Canadians, and even a dozen Americans. What we interpreted as quiet prevails from September through April, but from May through August tourism, festivals, bikers, hikers, kayakers, and white water rafters abound. The outdoor venues at the bars and restaurants are packed from mid-morning until late at night. Markets are jammed, bands play, food and wine are plentiful… the village and those surrounding Quillan are vibrant. Social life here far outstrips anything we previously experienced in the US. We expats hope that our area does not get “discovered”. We like it the way it is.
Why Quillan????
We live in the village of Quillan (Key-on). We first stayed here five years ago in October as we ventured farther south and west in our explorations of France. We worked our way from the east, spending time in the Alps, Burgundy, the Loire Valley, the Gers, the Midi-Pyrenees, and finally the Languedoc. It took us fifteen years. Each region had advantages, but an aversion to winter was strong and the climate here won. Paris, Lyon, Toulouse, Grenoble, and Marseille are wonderful, but successive trips found us spending fewer days in the cities. Life in French villages is far more enchanting.
Jack & His Writings
My literary efforts began late. I had always loved reading thanks to Dr. Kistner at Cornell of Iowa where I played basketball and baseball, drank copious amounts of beer, repeatedly fell in lust, and was introduced to classic literature. But until I approached sixty, my efforts at writing entailed only a few parodies on existing works. My first plunge into real creativity happened because I taught Lit of the Western World and The Inferno was part of the curriculum. The result was a 350 page novel, Trapped in the Inferno, which I still believe is my best effort. Since then I have authored over forty-two short stories, twelve of which appear in my first collection Morning Wine and Other Stories. The title is from the first of my writings to be published in online journals. A second collection, Thinking, Just Thinking, was released in January 2021.
I was hesitant to self-publish, but enthusiasm from my wife Julie and guidance from fellow expat Paulita Kincer shoved me over the top. The result was a professional product through Amazon. We had a book reading in January 2020 at the Palace, a local bar. The place was packed, I read from the collection, wine flowed, we laughed a lot, and Michaele (the owner of the Palace) was glad he had accommodated us. The picture featured above captures the pulse of the night and also demonstrates how we expats are accepted by the business owners in Quillan.
When asked what I write about, I shrug my shoulders and answer, “whatever I see, feel, or experience.” Some authors pursue one topic repeatedly. Mine arise new with each day. Morning Wine happened because I witnessed an old gentleman sitting alone with a pitcher of wine in a Lyon cafe early one morning. I mused about his thoughts as he stared into the early morning foot traffic, and a story was born. The story “At the Butcher Shop” (a very short one) which appears here arose from a report on spousal abuse. At times I have turned the voice over to a central character, hence Bruno the cat, who has quite an attitude in “Feline Meanderings” or Rodin’s statue the Thinker in “Thinking, Just Thinking” (which appears in the second edition). Most stories relate to things I care about and several are satires. I wrote “The Last Mourner” several years ago. Unfortunately, it parallels today’s world crisis.