I can't believe how fast the time is going! Only two more full days here at Plum Village. Today is "lazy day" but I find it to be the busiest as people offer classes: Taize singing last week and yoga both times. Also, I go to the small village (1.5 mi away) of Loubes-Bernac for coffee & to look for an ATM (there was none). And now I am at Upper Hamlet 1.5 mi the other way) to write to all of you. 

The countryside is a gem: vineyards, fields of sunflowers, hay and wheat, country estates, small little villages and stands of trees, some like forests and others planted in a row. 

I haven't figured out yet how to add pics here but here is a link to pics of one of my family members from last week: Max's pictures

I have so much more to tell you all but it is time for me to go back to Lower Hamlet for dharma sharing with my family group!

Hello from Plum Village - It took me a week to find out how to get on the Internet here: walk 30 minutes to Upper Hamlet, find out when the bookstore is open, buy ticket for wifi use for 2 hours. Voila!
Plum Village was est. in 1982 by Thich Nhat Hanh (known as Thay) and his community. There are 4 hamlets and several nearby houses called gites. I was assigned to Lower Hamlet, which is for families speaking certain languages and all single women. It is also the monastery for their sisters or women monks. Last week was the third week of the four week summer retreat and I will be also staying the fourth and last week. Today is the day for departures and arrivals so I have some free time. The Lower Hamlet (LH) is smaller and more intimate than the Upper Hamlet (UH) and has many more women so there is a different energy as you might imagine. Thay gives 4 talks each week: 2 at UH and one each at LH and New Hamlet.
This is a very new retreat/monastic setting for me. It differs from the contemplative, Zen, Vipassana, and others I have experienced. There are times of noble silence but also much laughter and singing and always the shouts of children. As was explained to us at the New Moon fete on Wednesday, Vietnamese culture considers children to be closer to the "source of all" - so children pretty well have the run of the place. At 87, Thay only wants to be surrounded by children. I feel it is because they do not want anything from him, as do we adults. Though every day is a bit different, a "typical day" is to rise at 5:30 for meditation at 6:00, breakfast at 7, get to place for talk, talk at 9:30, walking meditation with Thay at 11:45, dinner at 1:00, rest till 4:30, working meditation ie, chores (I have recycling), silent supper with family at 6:15, dharma sharing with family at 8, walking meditation at 9:30, lights out at 10, but many days I stay to listen to one of the sisters chant in Vietnamese and ring the huge bell until 10:30. A very full schedule and it has reached over 100 degrees here with high humidity and no fans except hand ones. But I love it all!

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Please excuse the typos. I have to use a European keyboard because I cannot connect my iPad to the wi-fi at my friend"s house. I arrived in Paris Wednesday morning early after a very empty flight; maybe 20 people on the entire plane! My friend Sylvie has a very small flat in a 5-story walkup. So I get lots of good exercise! Then we walk everywhere, too. We left the house at 10:30 am yesterday and returned around 9pm. We saw all of the famous Montmartre district that I missed the last time here. I finally learned how to add pictures - so here are a few of Sylvie's apt near the Marriott and the visit to Montmartre.

I've started this blog to chronicle my extended trip to France, Italy and Germany summer of 2013. I fly to Paris on July 16, leave some of my things with a friend and then on Sat. July 20 leave for southwestern France. I'll be spending two weeks at Thich Nhat Hanh's Summer Retreat in Plum Village some 50 miles from Bordeaux, then travel to Carcassonne, Avignon, Albi and Toulouse before heading back to Paris to do some day trips with my friend Sylvie who I met through Couchsurfing in 2008 (couchsurfing.org). Near the end of August I head for Italy to visit Milan, Cremona, Florence, Siena, Assisi and Cortona. Then on Sept. 9 I fly to Frankfurt to join Spiritual Directors International's Pilgrimage in the Footsteps of Hildegard of Bingen and then return to Tucson by way of Dusseldorf and Miami on September 21st. Many adventures for this little monk!