Nora timed finishing her café au lait to coincide with Pierre putting down his empty cup. He looked at their plates, checking to see if she and Chloe were through with breakfast.
“Eh bien! Allez zou! To the barn!” he said.
Nora was happy to hear a cheery tone to his voice.
Leaving the dogs inside, they walked to the first stone barn, not far from the house. The outer double doors were open and behind a wooden gate, which prevented animals from getting out, just inside the barn, chaos ensued.
“We have twelve babies,” Pierre said to Nora. “They were born in the last few days and are just figuring out how their legs work. Chloe is right. They are very amusing.”
In among the mother goats, the tiny, furry babies bounced and hopped around—on and off hay bales and into each other. They seemed to be leaping, twisting, and sprinting for no reason other than pure joy.
Often they got knocked over, and it took a moment for them to figure out how to get back up. Once they did, they went right back to being airborne again. Playful little bleats filled the air.
Chloe and Nora couldn’t stop laughing and taking photos. Even Pierre looked entertained.
“They look like they have springs on their feet. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Nora exclaimed when she caught her breath. “And what sweet faces! Oh, they are so cute!”
“Yes, they are pure delight. So innocent,” Pierre agreed. He flashed what Nora thought might be the sweetest smile she had seen since she met him.
Pierre opened the gate and invited them to join him with the goats. They were immediately mobbed and spent the next half hour petting and cuddling the squirmy, lovable bundles of fluff.
“They’re so soft!” said Nora.
They also got jumped on, and more than once Nora almost lost her balance. The nanny goats demanded their share of attention as well, with not-so-gentle nose bumps.
Laughing until tears rolled down their cheeks, Chloe and Nora took selfies and videos, many with goat noses pressed right up to the camera. The furry actors were endlessly curious and not camera shy in the least.
“Wait until the Girls see these! They are going to die.” Nora couldn’t wait to text her friends.
As Chloe and Nora played with the goats, Pierre busied himself at the back of the barn, organizing feed and other supplies. But from time to time, he came in to interact with the goats too. Nora thought it was sweet that he knew all the nanny goats by name and when he wasn’t looking, she snuck a shot or two of him for the Girls.
While the kids began literally falling over and dropping off to sleep, Nora agreed with Chloe’s suggestion that it was time to go back to the house and get cleaned up.
“Pierre, thank you,” Nora said, brushing hay and dirt off her jeans. “This was the most fun I’ve had in years! What an experience.”
He flashed a glimmer of a smile and nodded in acknowledgement.
“I loved every minute with those little cuties,” Chloe babbled. “I’m so glad you were here to see the kids, Mom!”
ChapterTwenty-Seven
The afternoon hiketook the group of six high into the rocky pathways of the Alpilles. The sky was bright, the purest of winter blue, scrubbed clean by a recent mistral, Pierre explained. The temperature was just chilly enough to be comfortable.
Jean-Marc and Lucy, the son and daughter-in-law of Suzanne and Henri, had also come along for le Réveillon. They brought their little Corgi, ChouChou, and his efforts, thanks to his very short legs, to keep up with Atticus and Fantôme amused the group. It was hard to know whether the dogs or the humans enjoyed the hike more.
Olivier explained because the trail was not one of the official sentiers and only used by locals, the dogs were allowed to run free. Otherwise, they would have had to be leashed.
“We prefer these trails we know so well, where they can have fun too and we don’t run into many people. The regular hiking trails are getting crowded,” Pierre added.
“Atticus is going to miss all this freedom when I take him back to the city,” Nora said. “It’s so much fun to see how happy the dogs are here.”
Lucy agreed, explaining ChouChou had to go to doggy daycare several days a week, so coming to the country was a big treat for him.
At times, the trail wound through dense pockets of low-growing shrubs—thyme, rosemary, wild lavender—their oils laced the air with sharp, pleasing scents. Even more so, as dogs or people stepped on them.
“It’s instant aromatherapy,” Nora said. She plucked a few sprigs of the plants, squished them gently between her fingers, and lifted her hand to breathe in the sharp, earthy fragrance. “Mmmm, heavenly.”
“Yes, those plants are called the garrigue,” Olivier told Nora. “And watch out for those pointy-leaved boxwoods. They can give one a nasty scratch.”
