One of the pleasures of living in France is opening up the windows each night to close the shutters (les volets) tight and protect the house from cold and attack, and then opening the windows back up again in the morning to open the shutters and let in the bright sunlit morning.
It’s bracing. It can be minus 20° and you still have to open those windows for a few moments every day and face the elements – it makes you feel alive. More often than not, however, you’re met with the balmy perfume-laden temperature of Spring or the crisp delightful air of Autumn, intermingled with wafts of smoke from a nearby neighbor burning leaves.
This is the view that greets us in our living room each day, seen through the iron shutters that desperately call for a paint job in a less sombre color. It’s our tilleul that is turning golden in the Fall (and which will soon be heavily trimmed for the winter to hinder its dwarfing our house).
These are the wooden shutters in our bedroom.
The past week I’ve been terrorized by a tiny little spider that nearly had me jumping out of my pants the first time it made its appearance when it ran straight for my arm that was leisurely opening the window. I didn’t want to kill it, but for several days I would open the window at lightening speed, my eyes darting everywhere to spot the offending creature and locate its existence, before reaching over it to open the shutters. One day it must have been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
In spite of all the dust, can you see the wadded spider in mortis rictus, its leg thrown up in protest? Or perhaps it’s a beckon to come hither meant to haunt me in my dreams. In any case, I can now open and close my shutters without fear.
Until Young Lady called me into her room to have a look out the window at her shutters.
Oh.
Ew.
Hoping beyond hope that she would have made herself scarce by morning, I saw that, on the contrary, she felt welcomed by all the photos and peering faces, and decided to settle in.
It’s okay. We can live in the dark.
Love it!
This makes me want to travel. Or at least move in with you.
Marinka, I’m cracking up. Our upcoming trip to the Loire might inspire you more than the spiders, ha ha. Photos to come.
May you have many more happy years together too.
Oh, yuck! Looks like a big one! Ewww!
So what did you do? Did you smush it? Shoo it outside?
It was a huge – at least as big as the photo you see. Finally Sir squished it with a shoe. I would have been too afraid.
Oh, and just discovered there’s another spider in my window frame about the same size as the other little one.
Poor thing. Me too, although I felt very safe with the spider on the other side of the glass.
My kids would have LOVED that spider! :-0
Spiders also freak me out! We used to live in a house infested with black widows amongst others. And one night while I was asleep, a spider bit me on my lower stomach and thank God never awokened me or I would have nightmares about it! But days went by until I noticed the marks that the spider had left me with his bite and the marks remained there for well over six months! It was at least the size of a quarter and there were eight tiny dots in a circlular form around the outer edges of the circle! To think that spider was in my pajamas, EEEK!
Oh yikes Michelle – that bite sounds horrid!
Oh, ick! That would freak me out!
My daughter would have freaked out and refused to stay in that room until the spider was dead. Leaving me to have to kill it (or watch it all day until my husband came home)
Hey Jennie. Just wanted to say ‘oh what a lovely blog’ from sunny Sydney. Oh how I miss our ‘parisian volets’. Could really use them to stop the sun from waking our kiddies super early. And hey they could help house a few of our super large spiders to!
You’d better start preparing the grandchildren to see geckos and palmetto bugs (actually roaches but look like beetles), and warn them to watch out for ants, which have an unpleasant bite.
Mama, you commented on my blog? How cute! 🙂
I am loving you and your stories. Get over the poor little spider. He is just protecting your home from way more icky bugs. 🙂 Oh and you really really are such a lady. A lovely lady. Love the pic.
Ugh yeah – you didn’t see the size of that thing. At least as big as my palm.
What sort of spider was she? A wood spider maybe? Don’t know if I agree about volets. We are on the 3rd floor so ours close from the inside. Don’t think I will like barring the windows every night and unbarring them in the morning. I prefer the light! But a bit of security is awfully comforting…even if it comes with 8 legs.
I never did the volets when we were in apartments, but in a house it feels much more secure. That spider, I have no idea what it was – just big!