23 Comments
User's avatar
Yasmin Chopin's avatar

I’m transported to places of rest and joy with your Encouragement files. Thankyou.

Expand full comment
Feasts and Fables's avatar

That is such a very lovely thing to say, thank you, Yasmin. Another one written and scheduled for tomorrow (I will be on a train from Paris to Shrewsbury via London). Thanks so much for your support and encouragement.

Expand full comment
Susie Mawhinney's avatar

It takes me an age to get through your FNFCM posts Barrie... from interiors that make me swoon, that Spanish farmhouse...💛 to extraordinary biro art that I find I can't stop looking at and then to just finish those beautiful calming words from Mansi... thank you for all the time you must take to make our reading gorgeous!

Expand full comment
Feasts and Fables's avatar

Aw, thank you so much … you’ve picked out some of my favourites too. There’s so much amazing material out in the world, it’s a joy to feed my own curiosity and then to ripple it out in these ‘magazines’ to be dipped in and out of. Thank you so much for reading them and for the kind words of encouragement. B

Expand full comment
Matt Inwood's avatar

Thank you for the kind resharing, B: yours and JoJo’s last few days of tub thumping have been truly appreciated. Prolonged absence from anything that we love/need to do cleaves and puts distance between two parts of yourself that are not always so easily and confidently put back together.

Expand full comment
Feasts and Fables's avatar

Always such a pleasure to see your words, Matt, so rippling them just happens … if it helps draw that thing you love (and are gifted at) closer to your day-to-day, that makes us so very happy. X

Expand full comment
Kate Hill's avatar

Thank you so much Barrie and Jo for wrapping me in your warm encouraging arms here. It’s a privilege to be able to share these years of French living and I hope they inspire or just distract a bit to a gentler life. Merci!

Expand full comment
Feasts and Fables's avatar

Super-inspiring and deliciously distracting. Have a fabulous Thursday, Kate.

Expand full comment
Mark Diacono's avatar

Being in the Lot at this time of year must be rather gorgeous if the last time I was there is anything to go by

Expand full comment
Feasts and Fables's avatar

This time, rather cheekily - perhaps knowing there was confetti involved (the same in French, it turns out) - the wind devils got going, a vent sauvage. But we do love the rolling landscapes and the look and feel of the villages. Saint-Cirq-Lapopie was especially beautiful.

Expand full comment
Sharron Bassano's avatar

Wow Wow Wow! If you need an interpreter, my Spanish is impeccable and my Italian respectable. Just saying...

Expand full comment
Feasts and Fables's avatar

Haha, we are so going to have to brush up on languages! Wine in every language at the very least!

Expand full comment
Sharron Bassano's avatar

One of the handiest sentences ever, in any language is " I would like one like this, please." Then you can walk into any retail establishment and just point!

Expand full comment
Feasts and Fables's avatar

Noted … I shall be brushing that one off!

Expand full comment
Pamela Leavey's avatar

The rail trip sounds like fun. I remember taking the train from Cannes to Amsterdam in 1974 by myself. I was all of 17 years old.

Expand full comment
Feasts and Fables's avatar

What a fabulous memory. We cannot wait to get started.

Expand full comment
Matthew Long's avatar

Matt is one of my very favorite writers. I look forward to his essays with anticipation. The same as I do with yours. They fill very different niche desires in my reading and thinking life but equally adored. Keep up the great work my friend.

Expand full comment
Matt Inwood's avatar

Matthew, thank you. ❤️

Expand full comment
Feasts and Fables's avatar

So touched to be part of your reading pile, Matt … very inspired by your ‘commonplace collections’ - this style is so good for shortcutting folk to the stuff we all feel passionate about.

Expand full comment
Travel Essayist's avatar

Autumn rail trip? Tell us more about it!

Expand full comment
Feasts and Fables's avatar

We have a 3-month global pass bought and a 33-country set of boundless possibilities to unlock. 1 September departure … possibly Scandinavia first … Istanbul, for sure … we might even take a ferry from Italy to Spain and head to Morocco before heading back to France through Portugal and Spain. A crazy birthday present for the old man!

Expand full comment
Travel Essayist's avatar

Wow, that’s fantastic. Do you need a porter to carry your bags? 😃😆 It’s a perfect birthday present! I can’t wait for all the amazing stories and photos from the trip.

Expand full comment
Feasts and Fables's avatar

I need to get my epic (also birthday) cycle done in May/June, then we’ll start to put some shape to the rail trip. Thanks for the encouragement. I plan to write something; still pondering the look and feel.

Expand full comment