the french (mountain) dispatch
and the dog-in-a-shop mentality
I definitely found myself grinding slowly to a halt after my Scottish tour. Even though there was nothing “out there” like a music video or a new release, the amount of work I put into getting my (and Nic’s) ass to Scotland and playing some songs was considerable. The amount of emails I sent, man.
So naturally when it was all over my brain kind of went blank and I felt like I should take a bit of time to rest… except, I don’t think I really did? I started a new job after 4 years serving coffee, cat-sat for friends, cleaned up after builders when my entire bedroom ceiling got replaced… and life just “lifed” all over, essentially.
The thing about being an independent artist is that when stuff like this goes on, you don’t have a manager or someone working away in the background to keep you on track. When you go off the rails, you're the only person who has to get yourself back on ‘em. And I’ll be honest: sometimes, you really don’t feel like it.
But last week I went on holiday to the south of France, and after a really really soul-nourishing, croissant-sampling, rock-ogling time, I can say that I have a bit of spring in my step back now.
Provence and the southern Alps that guard its eastern horizons is was a total dream for a ‘dog-in-a-shop’ budding geologist like me.
(I came up with the terms dog-in-a-shop a few years ago for that feeling where you’re in an unfamiliar setting but are so GENERALLY EXCITED by ALL THE THINGS in ALL THE DIRECTIONS, much like if I imagined a labrador was unleashed into a Sainsburys).
The limestones! The outcrops! The distant hills! Mont Saint Victoire looming as we drove by! The sandstone cliffs and the mumbly-jumbly conglomerates!
I took a lot of pictures and told myself that I would decipher the secrets of these hills when I got home. Yet my biggest source of info was a hardcore geology website which was entirely in French, which wasn’t the easiest to read.
Also, it looked like this:
God bless this Angelfire mess.
So. My main area of interest was the hills I saw when I went to Sisteron. This little town was a train ride away from Aix-en-Provence, and had the feeling of an abandoned Spyro the Dragon level. Winding streets, yellowy-buildings, secret doorways and a citadel with several bastions which looked fit for a boss-level scrap. Not to mention, THE CAVE:
If you can’t imagine Spyro nosediving out of this then I feel sorry for you.
The views from the top of the citadel were sensational, and stretched all the way down the Durance valley, which used to host a glacier in the last ice age.
To the west lay Montagne de l’Ubac, which looked like a lonely mountain from this angle. The crag on top was Roc De L’Aigle. To the north, softened by distance you could see the grey peak of the Pic de Bure, part of a limestone massif part of the far-away Dauphiné Alps.
Something about the blueness of a mountain very far away always manages to capture me.
What I didn’t know at the time was that there are actually radio telescopes on top of the Bure plateau, pointing their wide faces at the cold, glittering sky.
But the true pièce-de-résistance was the Rocher De La Baume in Sisteron, facing the citadel head-on like a looming opponent. From what I gather from this rock-face, its spectacular shape was created by a fault and then folds of the Alpine orogeny which left its limestone layers almost standing vertical. The rock comes from both the Tithonian (late Jurassic) and Barremian (early Cretaceous, about 20-30 million years later) geologic periods.
Just looking at the way these rocks are positioned, you have to admire the amount of time and force that’s moved them so dramatically.
And there’s so much more to think about! I have been looking over scientific papers to just see if there’s any basic facts I can glean about these formations. I took a piece of limestone back with me from Rocher De La Baume to keep, as well. I think I’m going to need to start labelling my rocks as the collection grows.
things i liked
✶ the RINGS OF POWER is actually very enjoyable and up until the last episode I loved it all. Some of the dialog is a bit… eh, but the visuals are stunning and I can’t wait to see what happens next.
✶ I’m starting to do Pony Sweat classes after being curious about them for a while. Aerobics to Kate Bush? yes please!
✶ this beautiful illustration:
✶ the scribbly-ness and chaos of this old diary:
✶ an Uber driver in France put this song on his stereo and we loved it so much it became the song of the holiday:
Thank you for patiently waiting while I dealt with all of the stuff that got in the way of me writing to you! I really enjoyed putting together this newsletter and will be back next week with more to share.
Don’t forget to click that ❤️ heart ❤️ button and collect your prize!
Olivia ✨🏔