02/06/2026
There’s something special about spring. The light softens, and everything feels a little lighter, as if the world is slowly waking up again. Here in France, you notice it in the small things. Café chairs appearing on the sidewalks, conversations lingering a little longer, the smell of freshly baked bread mixed with the warm air.
Suddenly, everything feels easier. Not because the world has become simpler, but because the sun shows up more often than the news does. At the same time, the crises continue, and it’s easy to feel small. How do you relate to all the misery when you’re sitting there with your coffee, while life around you simply goes on? The world is incomprehensible, messy, contradictory and still I find myself thinking: “This is actually quite lovely after all.”
Maybe life doesn’t always have to be optimized. Maybe sometimes it’s enough just to be. Here, that almost seems like a life strategy. People sit, talk, eat, and then do it all again. Not monotonously, but meaningfully. Like a reminder that life isn’t a project, but something that is constantly unfolding.
We live connected, but rarely present. We scroll, compare, and forget that real life is seldom perfect, yet often more genuine. Maybe that’s why the small, unplanned moments mean the most. When we’re not documenting, not performing, but simply being.
Maybe that’s really it. To be present, laugh a little more, do a little less. And sometimes leave the phone in your pocket./ Marie
