Picture of the Day

November 27, 2022 /

Wow, my hands look old. I’m turning 57 next month, so I guess it’s not surprising. Anyway, my old lady hand is showing off the lovely bracelet that I bought in France this September. I had in mind that I wanted to buy myself a memento in France, something to remember the trip. I went with my cousin…she and I were in charge of our Grandma’s estate after she passed away. Her will said that her sister, my Great Aunt Flo, was entitled to stay in the house as long as she wanted to. So my cousin Carey and I managed that, with repairs and taxes and so on, for the ensuing 5 years. After Aunt Flo moved from the house to assisted living last year, Carey and I again worked together, to clear the house out, clean it, and put it on the market. It was a lot of work. This trip to France was born from the friendship that we had built up over the last several years of managing the house, trying to figure out how to pay for this and that, how to talk to family and explain our decisions, which were not always what others wanted. We knew each other growing up, there was time when we had classes at school together and spent a lot of time, and time when we didn’t see or talk to each other for years.

Carey and her fiancée Diane (they are getting married next weekend!) have a time share commitment, which means that with a lot of scheduling and planning, we were able to stay at time shares in Mougins (near Cannes), and Vincennes (near Paris), for 2 1/2 weeks. Our first full day in France, we spent touring the hillside town of Mougins, which like many others, has a medieval village, full of narrow streets, charming restaurants, and shops run by local artists and artisans. There is also a small museum of mostly antiquities, with a few modern pieces thrown in.

Back to my plan to buy a little memento of this trip. My step-mom, Julie, had sent me a $100 bill, with instructions to buy myself something in France. So now there’s a lot of meaning for this memento, right? Grandma, Aunt Flo, Julie’s gift, my cousin and our once in a lifetime trip. So on this first day, touring the village of Mougins, we decided to stop in the museum. After ogling some lovely art, some of it quite racy, I went to check out the gift shop. And I fell in love with this little bracelet. I had been wanting a delicate bracelet to wear for several years, but hadn’t ever found anything. Did I really want to buy myself something on the first day of vacation? Something from a museum gift shop? What if I find something I like more, in Nice, or Cannes, or Paris? I decided that I didn’t want to have any regrets. I didn’t want to wish I had bought this bracelet, which was less than the gift from Julie. If I found something more expensive that I had to have, I was going to buy it anyway and have both. So I bought it.

Guess what? I don’t regret it. I never found anything that I liked as much. I didn’t even find anything else I wanted to buy, outside of some dish towels and sweaters (the weather was much cooler in Vincennes than in Mougins). I love it. I wear it a lot, and every time, I think about that little museum…about my cousin, my step-mom, my Grandma, and a beautiful vacation in France.

12 Comments

  • Meike

    November 27, 2022 at 4:38 pm

    This is a lovely memento I would say. It looks very pretty. It’s so great that you were able to go on this trip with your cousin. Sounds like you really earned it.

  • Elisabeth

    November 27, 2022 at 5:03 pm

    I LOVE all the layers of sentiment and warm memories that are wrapped up in this gorgeous bracelet. Well done.
    It’s incredible how much certain items can trigger such a cascade of wonderful thoughts/gratitude. <3

  • nance

    November 28, 2022 at 9:38 am

    It’s a pretty bracelet, so delicate and dainty, yet its colour is vibrant without being flashy. I think it’s a perfect piece.

    There’s a lot to be said for going with your instinct when it comes to things like this. If you immediately are drawn to something, if you automatically like/love something, I think it’s a good bet that it’s The One. And your choice speaks to you of many things and people. Again, it’s the perfect piece.

  • NGS

    November 28, 2022 at 1:06 pm

    I always buy bracelets when I’m on vacation. I’m a bit of a bracelet hoarder. But when I wear them, I’m reminded of happy times and I wear them A LOT, so it’s different than something like a a knickknack that you put on a shelf and don’t pay attention to after a bit. Consumables and jewelry are definitely my go-to mementos.

    • J

      November 28, 2022 at 1:20 pm

      NGS, I love that. I’m starting to thing that tea towels, if they are pretty, might be a good memento as well. I brought some of those home and I like them. 🙂

  • San

    November 30, 2022 at 2:24 pm

    How absolutely lovely, J – the bracelet and the story about how it ended up on your wrist (which does not look old btw). It’s wonderful to have something tangible in plain view that reminds you of people you love and happy memories <3