When I look back over my life so far, I see the faces of all the wonderful women I’ve known and I feel profoundly blessed. They give my life meaning and purpose and there is no measure of what I have learned from them. How I got so lucky I’ll never know. I’ve learned to never question my fortune and to simply absorb as much of their grace and wisdom as I can.

Now I’ve mentioned my friend Anne before, both here and in the book. She is the American who left the ‘civilization’ of Illinois in the ’60s to carve out an extraordinary life with her Swiss husband in rural France and she’s never looked back. She is a wife, mother and grandmother who grows her own vegetables (as I write this I’m eating green beans and yellow zucchini pulled from her soil this morning), knits fabulous capes, hikes in Nepal and lets Canadians stay in her apartment in Switzerland. She is smart, kind, loving, supportive, extraordinarily beautiful and, oh yeah, just a tad talented.

Today I’m taking you to her atelier located just behind her stunning French farmhouse.

Yes, this is her office. Incredible right? She makes jewelry and while I’ve seen her pieces before I’ve never seen her in action until now.

 

It’s amazing to watch her hands shape rough metal into these treasures…

Holy mackerel, I can’t even tie my shoelaces half the time let alone craft something as beautiful as this jewelry. I own a pair of Anne Devrient original earrings, the first gift Anne gave me but not the last. Not by a long shot. Dinners by the fire, Sunday lunches in the garden, coffees in town and now she and her husband Michel are guiding us to our new life in Switzerland. Yet another woman in my life who defines the word admirable.

And on that happy note, I bid you au revoir for a week. Blogcation beckons. Meet you back here on the 20th and in the meantime be good to yourselves.