Happy Winter Solstice
A new haircut, a trip to New York, and an ancient stone that offers treasure on Christmas Eve.
Tomorrow, the Light Begins to Return
Today is the winter solstice, the shortest day and longest night of the year. Tomorrow, the light will begin to return. Last year, to mark the solstice, we took a memorable midnight cold dip in the Orne River. This year, we went to a holiday party at the house of the only other Americans in our town, our friends, Mark and Sandi.
Somewhat solstice-related, yesterday, Flora June had a concert — her fourth holiday concert this month — that was held in a gorgeous stone church in a nearby village. It was a great concert, Flora June played the oboe.
As we drove home, Ben Blair noticed a small sign that said “Pierre Levée” with an arrow pointing in the opposite direction of where we were driving. Pierre Levée means Standing Stone. There are ancient stones, mehnirs, and dolmens (think similar to Stonehenge, but usually just one stone, or one structure) throughout Normandy, and throughout France and Europe. These structures are typically from the Stone Age (10,000 to 2,000 BCE), and were transported many miles from their original quarries.
We LOVE whenever we happen upon one. I find them so fascinating. I really enjoy spending time around them, and imaging the people who interacted with them over thousands of years. So we immediately did a u-turn and went to find this Pierre Levée, one we hadn’t seen before.
We drove back the way we had come about 2 miles, and there it was, maybe 30 meters from the road. A huge standing stone covered in patches of moss and lichen. Here’s a little video: