After a difficult 2 weeks at work it's a great pleasure to enjoy an early leisurely morning outdoors having breakfast in the cool sun. Birds chirping. Sounds of the day awakening.
Each time I spend a morning like this it takes me back to my time in in Cassis, Provence. The early morning when the air is still cool, the wind is calm and the smell of pines is abundant.
It belongs to the early birds. Those that service the tourist industry, working diligently and efficiently to prepare for the new day. Cleaning the sidewalks, cafe tables and beaches in anticipation of the tourist onslaught.
Those moments of industry, so purposeful, so practiced, so efficient, followed by sleepy eyed tourists wondering about with no particular purpose but for that all important cup of coffee. It's a time when everyone can tell the tourist from the local.
Gradually the sun becomes stronger and the "cigals" start their chorus. You have to look hard to find the locals, their time of preparation spent, the tourist onslaught overwhelms them. The lazy moment of the wondering tourists ends as the early birds fly away into the mayhem of the crowed streets.
From the heart
Richard Treadway
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