Biot

Maya lived close to the town of Biot with Adam and their kids.

It is a picturesque town sitting on a hill in the south of France.

It is so stereotypically French, you feel like you've been hit on the head with a baguette by a wine drinking mime.  The mime would of course be wearing a beret and holding a wheel of cheese as well.

Todd and I drove over to see her early in the morning, finding parking at the bottom of the hill (again....) and climbing to the top to see her.  We sat in the middle of the town square, eating bread, drinking coffee, eating cakes, talking, eating the local socca (a local chickpea flatbread).  It was a relaxed way to soak up the essence and atmosphere of this tiny French town.  For outsiders like Todd and myself, this lifestyle was incredibly attractive and an absolute world away from the usual hustle and bustle of our respective homes.

Walking around the narrow streets, it was strange to think of the three of us all together in this place.  It was lovely to be able to visit her with Todd, it had probably been over ten years that we had all been together in one place.  Each of us had gone in different directions in life and had found ourselves in very different locations and circumstances.  Todd was now in Jakarta.  I was in Hong Kong and Maya was in the south of France.  Three dramatically contrasting locations.

I enjoyed walking through the town.  The quiet of the place was lovely, more so for me given the usual constant noise I live with in Hong Kong.  I don't think there would have been even the briefest of moments that the three of us would have considered it possible all those years ago, that the next time we would be able to all catch up together would be so far away from where we started.