May-June: The journey continues...

The course from 30th May to 2nd of June was all set to be cancelled. 3 days before the course we had only 5 people (3 people cancelled), and with a heavy heart I typed out an email informing everyone that the course would have to be postponed. This is something I absolutely hate doing (i.e,cancelling a course) since I know how important everyone's time is, and how much they have to rearrange their family lives in order to take 4 days out for themselves. But sometimes it has to be done. So I typed out the email, and before I clicked 'Send', I saw there was a new email waiting in my mailbox. So I decided to read that one first. It was from Veronique (who had signed in Oct which was later cancelled) and she wrote to say that she and her friend Marjorie were going to join us!! (At this point you should have seen the way Steph and I were jumping :)) And the next day, Annie called Steph to say that her son Aurelien will participate too :))

Well, what can I say...God sure loves FUN!!

(From L to R) Aurelien, Veronique, Marjorie, Catherine, Kirsten, Stephane and Sheila

Our group of 8 consisted of Aurelien, the sisters Kirsten and Catherine, Sheila, Hazel, Herve (Hazel's husband), Veronique and Marjorie. This was the quietest group we have had so far...though it had its moments. On the first day of the course, they were told that they would see or do nothing that they had expected to(no yoga, no respiration, no meditation, no stress releasing techniques) ...were they really ready to waste 4 precious days of their lives?? Herve seemed the least bit bothered. His logic..."On any other weekend too, its the same. So why should it bother me?" Talk about leaving your expectations behind:))


On Sunday as usual we took the traditional after lunch Chateau walk, though Hazel and Herve could not join us. Sheila turned out to be quite a botanist, educating us about the various species of trees in the chateau gardens. It was nice to see Kirsten, Catherine and Aurelien, all aged between 17 and 22, participating with such openness and sincerity. In the "off times" they asked questions about the humanitarian work that Art of Living is doing, and expressed a strong desire to do concrete work for the betterment of this planet.

In the English gardens

On the last day, everyone was asked to bring a gift. Stephane, "It could be something you have created, or something you might want to get rid off...:)"


Herve', "Its probably one and the same thing".


This is the last course we did in Centre Alchimie des Sens, 13 rue Guerin. The place is quite dear to us, having brought together so many different people from different walks of life, all searching for something other than a mundane everyday existence. On behalf of all these people I thank Stephanie Coudert for giving us this space, which allowed us to start this fantastic journey inward...

Les Arlequins

We met Les Arlequins, a local theatre group, when they accepted our invitation to attend an Intro workshop. What resulted from a simple 1 hour exchange was a very special friendship :) Loulou, the Director of the company invited Stephane and me to their next performance (perks of being AOL volunteers)at the Cinema Ermitage...their interpretation of Moliere's "Les Malades Imaginaires". I cannot begin to tell you how impressed I was...the play was interactive, involving a few unsuspecting members of the audience, which made it all the more fun. The acting was vibrant and energetic, with sound effects created by some artists standing right behind the audience. And props for special effects that I cannot give out :))

For information about their next performances please visit http://www.lesarlequins.fr/ For those of you who are in the region, do try and make it to one of their shows..

At the end of the play Loulou introduced Stephane and Art de Vivre, to the audience, with the result that during the break that followed we had to satisfy people's curiosity about what exactly is this "Art de Vivre"??

The play was followed by the screening of the film "Sur les traces de Molieres", which is about a very important part of Moliere's life, where, inspired by the characters he met in his real life, he wrote most of his famous works. The film too was thoroughly enjoyable, sort of a "Shakespeare in Love" only not that boring, and much more fun.


The following saturday, Loulou and his team organised a "Festival des Associations"...basically inviting all associations in Fonty and surrounding areas to showcase their activities. Since there was a last minute cancellation, Loulou contacted us to see if we might be interested in participating. Stephane invited Philippe to do a session of "Laughter Yoga". Ours was the last programme of the evening, and was received with a lot of enthusiasm, as the Municipale Theatre of Fontainebleau, reverberated with "HA HA HO HO HEE HEEs".

On Sunday, June 22nd, Loulou and his friends had a get together at his house, La Belle Etoile. Its called a DIMENTRAM ...or DIManche ENTRe AMis (Sunday with Friends). The idea is to meet in the morning, then go to the local marche' to shop for vegetables etc, and then cook together, and enjoy a long Sunday afternoon lunch. Stephane and I were invited again :) We were the Chef's surprise!!Though I couldn't join them this time, Stephane tells me he had a ball! I could only join them in the last half hour, where the whole team of Arlequins (some 10 of them) joined in whole-heartedly in singing Indian bhajans to the strumming of Stephane's guitar :)

I have also decided to put Urvi in their Theatre workshop for Kids this fall. I figured at 5 I/2 she already does enough drama at home, might as well give her talent some direction :)

Birthday Surprise!

Monday, May 19th was my birthday :)

A flurry of wishes, ecards, phone calls, SMSs and emails, from almost everybody in AOL Fonty, left me totally surprised and wondering how all of them got to know of my birthday...none of them of course would tell me the truth! And they came up with the most incredulous sources, like "a little birdie told me", or there was "something in the air" etc etc It took me some cajoling to get it out of I-can't-mention-who to find out that Steph was behind it all...the little devil...

Steph and Severine had dropped by that day with chocolates(Yumm...)which hubby and daughter finished in no time. Friday, after the follow-up, everyone threw me a surprise party!! With more cakes!!!

This was probably the longest birthday ever, but I feel miraculously young, fresh and full of possibilities ...

Pentecourte, Picnic and a Project!

May 8th to 12th, was a looong weekend in France, popularly known as the weekend of Pentecourte. Stephane decided to spend his vacation in Fontainebleau, and we took full advantage of the amazing weather by taking long walks in the forest (with much reflection on maya and reality), daily Guru Pujas, follow-ups and satsangs, and a fantastic picnic on Sunday in the forests of Fontainebleau. On saturday, we went to Barbizon with Bea (where she played dog-poop cop and literally freaked out a young dog-owner, which left Stephane and me in splits!) Bea is also a terrific local guide (having lived in a nearby village for long), and freely filled us in with the hottest gossip about the local residents...who was murdered when, and who is serving jailtime etc...

Bea and Stephane frolicking à la forêt

Bea and me 'on the rocks' :)

The Three Muskeeteers!

Tree-shool

For the picnic on Sunday, we were joined by Chandrika, Viswanath, Vikas, Tejas, Saritha, Mahmed, Raphael and Sarah from Paris! From Fonty we were Max, Valerie, Robin, Chantal and her daughters, hubby Kanchan, Urvi and myself. Not sure in which group I mention Stephane, but I have a feeling he is leaning more towards Fonty :)

Robin (Hood) and his girls..Urvi, Elodie and Eve

Vikas and Tejas

We lazed on the green grass and sang Om Namah Shivaya, played Jungle Yoga with all the kids, and gobbled up a delicious picnic lunch. Later we went for a long walk in the forest, following the crazy blue and yellow arrows (some of which were either pointing straight to the ground, or painted at the top of a high rock, pointing skywards!) During the walk we talked about our project...and discussed the possibility of doing a Village Art de Vivre to start with. Words like "notre Coeur du metier" resonated strongly with the group, and an impromptu brainstorming resulted in a variety of ideas, all of which looked positively brilliant!

Max...on top of the world! Looks like someone followed the signs alright :)
Stephane and his kids

The President...contemplating the future of Art de Vivre...

All in all it was a thoroughly enjoyable day, and a great way to celebrate Guruji's birthday which was on Tuesday, May 13th!

It has been decided that the weekend of Sept 27th and 28th will be Weekend Nationale de L'Art de Vivre. Largely due to Chantal's effort, we have now reserved L'Ermitage de Franchard for the Weekend. At least 150 AOLites from all over France are expected to participate. The ayurvedic massage team from Bad Antogast have also confirmed participation for the Village Art de Vivre.

And we started our adventure in Fontainebleau only a year ago! Looks like the plan to convert Napolean's chateau to the future ashram is well on its way:))