A Day in the Life at La Borie

It's getting better all the time

I’m back from France but wanted to share a little more of my visit to La Borie this summer. Also, if you haven’t already done so, please participate in my reader survey. I’m eager to hear from you!

And don’t forget to check out my most recent Enlightened Omnivore Podcast with

Heather Marold Thomason

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When at La Borie in the Summer, you can’t start your day without remarking on the heat. The temperature can soar above 90 degrees before noon, and linger eight hours or more until the sun sets after 9 o’clock at night. Although, by the numbers, August is hotter back in California, it’s the longer French days and scarcity of air conditioning that exaggerates the effects.  

But rather than wrestle with the sweltering sun, I adopt a more Mediterranean tempo, doing most of my outside activities in the morning, like a walk around the property in the cool dawn breeze while everyone else is still in bed. 

On this morning’s walk, the first thing I notice is the sound of crunching below my feet. White garden snails, theba pisana, blanket the ground like a fresh dusting of snow. I’ve never seen it anywhere else, but at La Borie, these tiny, white mollusks appear like sea creatures, clinging to every vertical edge of grass, leaf or stem, like barnacles on a coral reef. The Mistral blows them to and fro on their precarious perches, an undulating terrestrial ocean current.