Preparing for an adieu
It's hard to truly process, but nonetheless the time's well overdue to set it in ink that we will be saying goodbye to Pré Borel. How hard it will be!!
It wasn't an easy decision, as you can imagine. This very beautiful place has been a blessing to live in, and to share. But we do believe it is the right decision, as we try to get our heads around the fact that next year we won't be here, won't even be in Europe, but will have returned to Canada. It's been a decade for me, even longer for Greg, so we expect it'll be quite a readjustment. There is much to look forward to, but also much, we are well aware, that we will dearly miss.
Since May I have been 'meaning to' get pictures and text up here on the blog. At the end of May we had a wonderful group of friends come to help us do some projects, to 'work & play' -- and what a grand start it was to the summer for us: much laughter, beautiful music, and a full expression of what my IV students (way back when) called "food, folks, and fun."
That was the beginning of a busy time of family, godchildren (and their families), and friends who we had not seen for many years descending to enjoy the delights of Pré Borel. Many loaned muscles and perspiration, alongside their joy and entertainment, as we tried to finish a few long-term projects around the place. From its very purchase, Pré Borel has been 'our' place in a very wide sense of the term.
It is an 'our' ever so much broader than 'Greg & Kirstin.'
Friends old and new helped us move in; dear friends came and stayed with me as -- only 12 days later -- Greg headed into life-threatening brain surgery; friends, family, and wonderful new neighbours immediately arrived and began helping us make an ugly barn beautiful, the mountain range visible, a cosy kitchen viable. Loren and Mary Ruth joined forces with Andy and turned up a veg patch, my brother created what is now a notable selling feature: a beautiful 'looks like it's always been there' wild-life-attracting pond. Don, Alex, and Kara dug in the trees that now make autumn a visual feast. Caroline spent hours
in the dirt, transferring roses, wisteria, grapes which now, added to Allan and Jane's vines, cover barn and pergola alike. The list of people who have shifted rocks, torn up planks, sawed down bamboo, let alone faced sink-loads of dishes, muddy floors, and massive meals, could go on and on and on. It is these people, it is you who have read and cared and prayed, who have made Pré Borel a wider 'ours.'
One thing that I really really love is that that 'ours' extends too to our neighbours. The people from whom we bought the house were very private, and did not engage much with the community. They kept their gates closed. It is sad, because they missed out on relationships with warm and welcoming people. People who have given us advice and help, and
who have chosen to receive the same from us. People who have delighted in our overly abundant harvests, and have showed us and shared with us the resulting – and incredible -- chutneys, jams, and oils. Neighbours who have invited us into their homes, and who have delighted in ours -- children ever eager to play under the weeping willow, race around the labyrinth, and attempt to catch frogs and fish...adults who have delighted in the hot tub, even when we're gone, and had their first ever campfires under the stars, neighbours who have felt free to stop by and chat, tease, or vent...and of course, Pappy, who still brings us eggs weekly, as he totters on his bicycle, sometimes sitting on the bench at the front of the house just for a rest and to enjoy the view. Perhaps more than any, that 'ours' includes these neighbours.
But there is also an unacknowledged group of people in that ‘ours’, of whom we've been reticent, for reasons of privacy, to say too much. But the 'ours' includes them in an incredibly special way -- a way quite different from the timeless land-bound way of Pappy, but a way that is, if temporal, almost as full. This group of seven people are those who made it possible for the 'ours' of Pré Borel to exist in the first place.
Perhaps you remember allusions to difficulties we faced just after committing to buy Pré Borel. We had discovered that due to Greg having a brain tumour we were no longer viable for a house mortgage.
Devastating news. Greg was busy, in the days before the operation, chasing down any route possible, trying to figure some manner of making the purchase we had committed to possible. It was pretty stressful. No one was willing to loan us *anything* until after they were sure Greg had survived the surgery. But that would be too late for us to be able to purchase the house.
Then we started receiving the most amazing phone calls. First from one friend, then another, asking: would we consider borrowing money from them, and maybe some others, so that we could buy the house straight out, and then manage the bank loans after Greg's surgery was over? On top of the simple incredibleness of the offers, was the fact that these people were coming up with the idea, and their offers to participate in it, independent of each other. Most of them did not even know
each other -- they lived in Britain, Canada, and the U.S. Because of the ingenuity, the initiative, and the generosity of these people, Pre Borel became our, theirs, and yours.
Now we must leave this gift of a place, but we believe the investment has been worthwhile. We have tried to tend the land as well as our lives allowed for, and have been rewarded with not only beautiful flora, but an inundation of fauna too ;) -- including rare species of birds, insects, and mammals! The bird-life in particular has increased incredibly in our short time here, and the decision to leave the back part of the lawn uncut has meant that each year there are more orchids – and accompanying butterflies. The local real estate agent commented, as he walked around: “Before, this place was sterile; it is no more!” Perhaps an even greater investment has been in the people. We are as pleased as can be that as ‘half-countrified half-citified’ foreigners, we’ve somehow defied classification -- thus not only managing to be friendly with the town-ish neighbours up in the hamlet, but also with the farmer-neighbours down on the plain. Folk who have spent 50 years passing each other as they walk along the road, now finally have had proper conversations -- Pré Borel providing a literal in-between ground on which to do so. New relationships have begun, and will, we hope, continue long after we are gone. A tiny corner of France is perhaps a wee bit more cohesive. These are the sorts of things that make us believe the risk our far-away friends took, loaning us the money that enabled us to be here, was a worthwhile investment.
Pré Borel has been a place of great joy for us -- a wonderful place in which to rest & recover, and a place which we’ve delighted in sharing! So we are sad, but in some way content too. We believe this is the right decision for us, at this time. There is much to say goodbye to, but it will be Good to be closer to family. We will be closer to many friends too – but we will also be moving farther from others. This is one of the tragedies of a transient culture. How I envy those of you who have had the gift of always living in the same community, not spreading yourself far too thin across country, continent, and ocean, unable to keep adequately in touch with the many dear folk you have been blessed to know!
We expect to be back in the Ottawa area by the new year. Many friends who have moved back to North America after fewer years in Europe than we have spent, have warned us that “reverse culture shock” can be tough -- so have mercy on us as we go into withdrawal over European chocolate and coffee and other aspects of this culture which we truly love!
Between now and then, our lives shall be faaaar too busy! I have a huge amount of academic work I hope to accomplish before then, and Greg is even now very busy working long-distance for his father’s company in Ottawa. We have a house to keep fit for selling – and the ravages of a recent savage hailstorm to contend with (VERY bad timing!). We have four abandoned kittens and their beautiful mother to find a home for (anyone want a very cute kitten?!) Packing, DIY, moving, doctors appointments, etc etc…so if any of you praying folk find your list is too short: put us on it!
And if any one knows of someone wanting a beautiful home a short drive from Grenoble, in the middle of the walnut groves, send ‘em this way! We hope and pray that the next folk here will continue to participate in the community, that they will love the abundant nature, and that they WON’T divide up the land and turn the barn into apartments (occasionally folk tell us that the potential for this could increase the selling value of the place)!!
And of course, we simply hope that at the wrong time of year to be selling a home, Pré Borel will actually sell…and begin its own new adventure.
More photos, etc, soon.
G&K
(Here are a few Before and After shots....
Many of you will already have seen some 'before & afters' of Bruce's pond...but the change in the landscape itself still amazes me. The property seemed dead-flat when we bought it. But that's no longer true. And the hedge trees we hoped would grow in to create more privacy, from the house as well as from the road, have surpassed themselves!
The change in the barn is the most striking for anyone familiar with the property before. Many considered it a serious eyesore, simply crying to be pulled down -- for sheer ugliness, let alone for the fact that it blocked views of both the mountains and the sun!
A series of 'pullings down' radically changed things -- that's Paul helping Greg in the photo, Stage One. Stage Two was Loren & Andy. Stage Three was Andrew, Alan, and Robert.
Now people often comment on how lovely the barn is! We tore off the fiberglass sidings, and moved the woodslats from the top to the bottom -- allowing the winter sun to stream through the barn, all the way to the kitchen window!
On the other side was the major project of pulling down almost the entire two-storey half-barn which was attached to the main structure. What was a wall and roof became a view! We left one part-section, fixed it up purty, and set vines a-growing everywhere. Now a 'pergola' shades us from afernoon sun, and in a few years from now the barn should be a glorious mass of green and flowers and grapes!
oh....and of kiwis too of course!!
The top of the 'pergola' is now almost half-covered in vines already. In spring, when the honeysuckles are in bloom, the smell is heavenly!
The garden path and pergola roof should be named after Ann, Becca, Chad, Sharon, Nina, Carrie, Keith, Heather, Bruce, Amy, and P.H.....just to give you an idea of the vast amount of TLC poured in...
Only in person could you really see how much this corner has changed...but you can tell that I began mulling over the possibilities early on -- the shot below was taken on our first viewing of the house!
These last two are both out our bedroom window...the angle's not the same, but it's still the same window...now a wee bit more 'verdant.'
....not as good as in person, and still far from all [!] -- but there's a little perspective on some of the changes at Pré Borel...)
It wasn't an easy decision, as you can imagine. This very beautiful place has been a blessing to live in, and to share. But we do believe it is the right decision, as we try to get our heads around the fact that next year we won't be here, won't even be in Europe, but will have returned to Canada. It's been a decade for me, even longer for Greg, so we expect it'll be quite a readjustment. There is much to look forward to, but also much, we are well aware, that we will dearly miss.
Since May I have been 'meaning to' get pictures and text up here on the blog. At the end of May we had a wonderful group of friends come to help us do some projects, to 'work & play' -- and what a grand start it was to the summer for us: much laughter, beautiful music, and a full expression of what my IV students (way back when) called "food, folks, and fun."
That was the beginning of a busy time of family, godchildren (and their families), and friends who we had not seen for many years descending to enjoy the delights of Pré Borel. Many loaned muscles and perspiration, alongside their joy and entertainment, as we tried to finish a few long-term projects around the place. From its very purchase, Pré Borel has been 'our' place in a very wide sense of the term.
It is an 'our' ever so much broader than 'Greg & Kirstin.'
Friends old and new helped us move in; dear friends came and stayed with me as -- only 12 days later -- Greg headed into life-threatening brain surgery; friends, family, and wonderful new neighbours immediately arrived and began helping us make an ugly barn beautiful, the mountain range visible, a cosy kitchen viable. Loren and Mary Ruth joined forces with Andy and turned up a veg patch, my brother created what is now a notable selling feature: a beautiful 'looks like it's always been there' wild-life-attracting pond. Don, Alex, and Kara dug in the trees that now make autumn a visual feast. Caroline spent hours
in the dirt, transferring roses, wisteria, grapes which now, added to Allan and Jane's vines, cover barn and pergola alike. The list of people who have shifted rocks, torn up planks, sawed down bamboo, let alone faced sink-loads of dishes, muddy floors, and massive meals, could go on and on and on. It is these people, it is you who have read and cared and prayed, who have made Pré Borel a wider 'ours.'
One thing that I really really love is that that 'ours' extends too to our neighbours. The people from whom we bought the house were very private, and did not engage much with the community. They kept their gates closed. It is sad, because they missed out on relationships with warm and welcoming people. People who have given us advice and help, and
who have chosen to receive the same from us. People who have delighted in our overly abundant harvests, and have showed us and shared with us the resulting – and incredible -- chutneys, jams, and oils. Neighbours who have invited us into their homes, and who have delighted in ours -- children ever eager to play under the weeping willow, race around the labyrinth, and attempt to catch frogs and fish...adults who have delighted in the hot tub, even when we're gone, and had their first ever campfires under the stars, neighbours who have felt free to stop by and chat, tease, or vent...and of course, Pappy, who still brings us eggs weekly, as he totters on his bicycle, sometimes sitting on the bench at the front of the house just for a rest and to enjoy the view. Perhaps more than any, that 'ours' includes these neighbours.
But there is also an unacknowledged group of people in that ‘ours’, of whom we've been reticent, for reasons of privacy, to say too much. But the 'ours' includes them in an incredibly special way -- a way quite different from the timeless land-bound way of Pappy, but a way that is, if temporal, almost as full. This group of seven people are those who made it possible for the 'ours' of Pré Borel to exist in the first place.
Perhaps you remember allusions to difficulties we faced just after committing to buy Pré Borel. We had discovered that due to Greg having a brain tumour we were no longer viable for a house mortgage.
Devastating news. Greg was busy, in the days before the operation, chasing down any route possible, trying to figure some manner of making the purchase we had committed to possible. It was pretty stressful. No one was willing to loan us *anything* until after they were sure Greg had survived the surgery. But that would be too late for us to be able to purchase the house.
Then we started receiving the most amazing phone calls. First from one friend, then another, asking: would we consider borrowing money from them, and maybe some others, so that we could buy the house straight out, and then manage the bank loans after Greg's surgery was over? On top of the simple incredibleness of the offers, was the fact that these people were coming up with the idea, and their offers to participate in it, independent of each other. Most of them did not even know
each other -- they lived in Britain, Canada, and the U.S. Because of the ingenuity, the initiative, and the generosity of these people, Pre Borel became our, theirs, and yours.
Now we must leave this gift of a place, but we believe the investment has been worthwhile. We have tried to tend the land as well as our lives allowed for, and have been rewarded with not only beautiful flora, but an inundation of fauna too ;) -- including rare species of birds, insects, and mammals! The bird-life in particular has increased incredibly in our short time here, and the decision to leave the back part of the lawn uncut has meant that each year there are more orchids – and accompanying butterflies. The local real estate agent commented, as he walked around: “Before, this place was sterile; it is no more!” Perhaps an even greater investment has been in the people. We are as pleased as can be that as ‘half-countrified half-citified’ foreigners, we’ve somehow defied classification -- thus not only managing to be friendly with the town-ish neighbours up in the hamlet, but also with the farmer-neighbours down on the plain. Folk who have spent 50 years passing each other as they walk along the road, now finally have had proper conversations -- Pré Borel providing a literal in-between ground on which to do so. New relationships have begun, and will, we hope, continue long after we are gone. A tiny corner of France is perhaps a wee bit more cohesive. These are the sorts of things that make us believe the risk our far-away friends took, loaning us the money that enabled us to be here, was a worthwhile investment.
Pré Borel has been a place of great joy for us -- a wonderful place in which to rest & recover, and a place which we’ve delighted in sharing! So we are sad, but in some way content too. We believe this is the right decision for us, at this time. There is much to say goodbye to, but it will be Good to be closer to family. We will be closer to many friends too – but we will also be moving farther from others. This is one of the tragedies of a transient culture. How I envy those of you who have had the gift of always living in the same community, not spreading yourself far too thin across country, continent, and ocean, unable to keep adequately in touch with the many dear folk you have been blessed to know!
We expect to be back in the Ottawa area by the new year. Many friends who have moved back to North America after fewer years in Europe than we have spent, have warned us that “reverse culture shock” can be tough -- so have mercy on us as we go into withdrawal over European chocolate and coffee and other aspects of this culture which we truly love!
Between now and then, our lives shall be faaaar too busy! I have a huge amount of academic work I hope to accomplish before then, and Greg is even now very busy working long-distance for his father’s company in Ottawa. We have a house to keep fit for selling – and the ravages of a recent savage hailstorm to contend with (VERY bad timing!). We have four abandoned kittens and their beautiful mother to find a home for (anyone want a very cute kitten?!) Packing, DIY, moving, doctors appointments, etc etc…so if any of you praying folk find your list is too short: put us on it!
And if any one knows of someone wanting a beautiful home a short drive from Grenoble, in the middle of the walnut groves, send ‘em this way! We hope and pray that the next folk here will continue to participate in the community, that they will love the abundant nature, and that they WON’T divide up the land and turn the barn into apartments (occasionally folk tell us that the potential for this could increase the selling value of the place)!!
And of course, we simply hope that at the wrong time of year to be selling a home, Pré Borel will actually sell…and begin its own new adventure.
More photos, etc, soon.
G&K
(Here are a few Before and After shots....
Many of you will already have seen some 'before & afters' of Bruce's pond...but the change in the landscape itself still amazes me. The property seemed dead-flat when we bought it. But that's no longer true. And the hedge trees we hoped would grow in to create more privacy, from the house as well as from the road, have surpassed themselves!
The change in the barn is the most striking for anyone familiar with the property before. Many considered it a serious eyesore, simply crying to be pulled down -- for sheer ugliness, let alone for the fact that it blocked views of both the mountains and the sun!
A series of 'pullings down' radically changed things -- that's Paul helping Greg in the photo, Stage One. Stage Two was Loren & Andy. Stage Three was Andrew, Alan, and Robert.
Now people often comment on how lovely the barn is! We tore off the fiberglass sidings, and moved the woodslats from the top to the bottom -- allowing the winter sun to stream through the barn, all the way to the kitchen window!
On the other side was the major project of pulling down almost the entire two-storey half-barn which was attached to the main structure. What was a wall and roof became a view! We left one part-section, fixed it up purty, and set vines a-growing everywhere. Now a 'pergola' shades us from afernoon sun, and in a few years from now the barn should be a glorious mass of green and flowers and grapes!
oh....and of kiwis too of course!!
The top of the 'pergola' is now almost half-covered in vines already. In spring, when the honeysuckles are in bloom, the smell is heavenly!
The garden path and pergola roof should be named after Ann, Becca, Chad, Sharon, Nina, Carrie, Keith, Heather, Bruce, Amy, and P.H.....just to give you an idea of the vast amount of TLC poured in...
Only in person could you really see how much this corner has changed...but you can tell that I began mulling over the possibilities early on -- the shot below was taken on our first viewing of the house!
These last two are both out our bedroom window...the angle's not the same, but it's still the same window...now a wee bit more 'verdant.'
....not as good as in person, and still far from all [!] -- but there's a little perspective on some of the changes at Pré Borel...)
posted by Kirstin Jeffrey Johnson at 11:10 pm
8 Comments:
Thanks so much for posting that.
You wrote:
"How I envy those of you who have had the gift of always living in the same community, not spreading yourself far too thin across country, continent, and ocean, unable to keep adequately in touch with the many dear folk you have been blessed to know!"
Indeed!
I'm nostalgic for you just thinking of you guys having to leave such a wonderful place. And thanks for sharing the story! How incredible.
We'll keep you in our prayers! And there is at least one more silver lining that you didn't mention... you'll be one of the few people in-the-know when you find the artichoke pile at a Canadian supermarket.
If you guys have occasion to get out to BC, be sure to visit our little abode.
And, as always, keep in touch!
Oh, and I just bumped into Greg's aerial view of your place at YouTube... cool!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05wJThYy2yw
How I envy you who have the gift of leaving a place more beautiful than it was when you came.
I feel so blessed that I got to visit you at Pré Borel while you were there.
I hope to see you in Canada before too long!
Alas, two great disappointments- that we never got a chance to visit, and that you're not moving to the west coast. :-)
We'll be thinking of you as you engage in this transition. No doubt it will involve mixed feelings, but once you've felt that icy Ottawa winter again you'll know you've made, ummm, the right decision, right? Seriously, though, all the best with your move and we'll look forward to meeting sooner, rather than later.
It will be hard to leave, but just think of all the fun we'll have when you get here! And you can finally meet Jack! (Who is just about ready to head off for college...) We can hardly wait to see you guys and spend more time with you.
That is one beautiful spot -- but the amazing thing is that you two beautify whatEVER spot you occupy. North America will be a much richer place with you back in it. Poor old France though... ;)
Kirstin and Greg - we've been out of touch for ages, but I've just read this post to catch up with your news. Can you just give me a bit more story on what you are going to be doing in Ottawa? I don't want to put my email here, as I think that means I'll get lots of spam, but you can get it from facebook, or look Tony up on the Friends University website.
Yes, I envy those who have always lived in the same community, but I also know that there is a richness to be enjoyed from settling here and there, picking up gems along the way to take with you, broadening your vision of life, understanding more about other people and other ways of life. The leaving and arriving is often hard, though, so I will be thinking of you.
Hi, Kirsten, I've loved reading your adventures at Pre Borel the past few years. I'm sure it is sad to leave but what wonderful community and beauty you and Greg have brought to it! I can't wait to read more of your adventures in Canada. Congratulations to Greg!
Happy Moving to you,
Christina (McFarland) Hubbard
christina.hubbard@gmail.com
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