From shoes at the front door to four kisses on the cheek, Sylvie discovers how complicated being polite can become. By Sylvie, France Every home has its own habits. Some are so normal to us that we hardly notice them, until somebody visits and does things differently. Then suddenly we realise that what is polite…
We were supposed to discuss a topic. Instead, we talked about weather, daughters, blood, running, films, pizza and whatever happened to come next. Maybe that was the better conversation. By Sylvie. France. We were supposed to talk about our topic. We didn’t. We started with the weather. It was 24 degrees where I was, but…
By Sylvie, France. Some things stay because they are useful, some because they were gifts, and some simply because nobody has decided what to do with them yet. Then there are the things we are quite happy to leave behind. I have a popcorn machine in my house that I never use. It was a…
By Sylvie, France. Some inventions make life easier. Others change what we think is possible — and sometimes the same invention manages to do both. Before we reached the subject of inventions, our conversation had already travelled through quite a few parts of everyday life. We talked about the things happening in the world, the…
By Sylvie, France. From tennis nerves and supermarket calculations to concert crowds, safari nightmares and the quiet art of letting someone go first, an ordinary conversation about waiting kept finding somewhere else to go. Sylvie lost her tennis match 6–2, 6–1, which did not particularly surprise her. What mattered more was that the score did…
By Sylvie, France. Some things are waiting to be useful. Others are keeping a memory safe. The difficult part is knowing which is which. I like when things are organised. Old batteries have their special place. Cables have another box. The cables I use every day are easy, but the others — from old laptops…
By Sylvie, France. From polishing shoes on Saturdays to reminding grown daughters to clean their rooms, some household rules disappear. Others simply change shape. When I was a child, Saturday meant cleaning. We lived on a farm, so shoes in the house were not a big problem. There was dirt anyway. But every Saturday, the…
By Sylvie, France. Some adventures need a plan. Some only need trust. And sometimes curiosity is simply waiting to see what happens next. If I had a lot of money, I think I would only travel. There are so many places I would like to discover, especially other cultures. Friends are preparing for a safari…
By Sylvie, France Sometimes discovering another world does not mean travelling anywhere. Sometimes it arrives in your garden, turns up the music, jumps into the pool and politely tells you that it is time to leave your own party. When we started talking about “discovering other worlds,” I wasn’t completely sure what that meant. Another…
Why do so many of us only notice the importance of rest when we are already exhausted? What began as a conversation about holidays slowly became something deeper: the quiet pressure of modern life, family responsibilities, and learning that rest is not a reward—it is part of staying human. The word holiday sounds relaxing, but…
