Come Away With Me to France & Beating Cancer

Welcome to another week full of opportunities. Currently, I have to remind myself that there are opportunities in all situations. I believe it is a question of attitude, even though my behaviour seems to suggest something different.

I struggled with the last chemotherapy

Unfortunately, I struggled quite a bit after the last chemotherapy. I am now in the second part of the FEC-T chemotherapy. The chemical that is given to me now is Docetaxel. My doctors decided to give me a higher dose on the first of those chemotherapies. Apparently, this is what they do because it provides a better chance of fighting cancer cells. Or so they explained to me.

But good grief did that knock me out after a couple of days. The first few days, I was absolutely fine and hoped: “Wow if that’s how the rest goes, I am happy.” At first, I experienced the usual exhaustion but was so glad that my unladylike bowel problems had receded. All seemed well until I developed thrush in my mouth. YUK! Then the soles of my feet started to burn. Then I got nosebleeds.

I tried to stay positive despite the chemo trouble

We went to the hospital every week so that my doctor started to call me a regular. It’s an excellent department I admit but hey: There is a vicious virus on the loose! I can do without visits to the hospital, especially as my blood tests showed that my immune system was underperforming.

Never mind, as much as I could I stayed positive and kept going, but I just couldn’t get myself into keeping the blogging up. Or more to produce newer content. Yes, yes, I know I do not need to blog. It’s my hobby, but I had planned to be 4 weeks ahead with my posts. And I love blogging. And why the heck can’t I just keep my habits going?

It bothers me.

However, I have started to suspect that maybe it’s time for me to learn to relax a little. It’s August after all, and some people have holidays. I could let go of some things for a little. I have also started to suspect that my inner critic has taken over (again!). Never a good adviser that one.

Are you coming away with me to France?

I am still in the process of figuring what’s going on. And no, I do not accept cancer as an answer. That would give the bugger power over my life, and that’s not gonna happen!!!!

Well, next week is the next chemotherapy, but until then we’ll come away to France. Are you coming with me?

I assume we know a lot about France, so a little different introduction

Ah, France! The country of legends. Romantic cities and castles, glorious food & wine and proud people who love to speak their language and nothing else. Oh, and I forgot the coffee. I love cafe au lait.

I think we all know a lot about France. It’s a famous place, after all. So I chose two videos which show a not so touristy France or places we know anyway. Please enjoy them as an intro into the country.

I’ve been lucky enough to have been to France a couple of times

I was lucky enough to grow up in the South of Germany, where France is comparatively close. Germany in the 70’s ad 80’s when I grew up was very much into teaching its children that other countries are friends. To encourage that we had school exchanges with France, the UK and other countries. I had the luck to visit Alsace with one school and Paris with another. My step-mum used to be a French teacher which meant I had another visit to Paris with her, my father and a friend. I also travelled through France many times on my way to and from Germany/UK.

I have to admit though that I never felt as passionate about France than about the UK. Up until the Brexit referendum I had hardly any negative experiences in Great Britain being German. The British were always polite to me and encouraged my language learning. The British are very good with that in my experience.

I like France despite difficult experiences

France, however, is a different kettle of fish. So proud of their language. Once I ordered stamps in France, but the gentleman behind the counter pretended not to understand me. I asked my step-mum afterwards what I had said to get such a reaction, but she said I ordered stamps. He should have understood me. I also experienced people in France, treating me differently when I speak English and come across as a Brit. Well, maybe not now after Brexit. I haven’t been to France since. Unfortunately, these experiences have shaped my feelings towards the country.

No, don’t get me wrong. I like France. It’s a beautiful country, and I am sure most French don’t have these old WW2 hang-ups anymore. But I just could never connect as much with France than I did with the UK. But maybe that will change now that my feelings towards the UK are so much more complicated than they used to be.

Enough said. Now music.

I am going to make a little change to the music part of “Come Away With Me”. For all the countries that I have “visited” with this blog so far, I found it quite hard to “just” chose one artist to represent the country. There are so many out there. So from now on, I will showcase one artist but also offer a playlist with different artists so you can explore a little more.

Today’s artist is Isabelle Geffroy known by her nickname Zaz. She is an incredibly versatile artist, and if you saw the film “Hugo” you know one of her songs: “Cœur Volant”. She seems to be more famous on the continent and Canada than here in the UK. So please discover an incredible artist.

Zaz homepage

Zaz on French Music Blog

I searched on YouTube for “Top Ten France” and found a couple of songs that I liked very much. Not sure if they are in the charts currently or if it’s a YouTube top ten but what struck me was the humour many of these videos showed. Please enjoy.

And where are we going next week?

Come Away With Me 2020 Musical Challenge Country for Monday, August 17th, 2020

I am taking a rather random route around the world, but sometimes it makes sense. Next week we move to neighbouring Switzerland. Please find Swiss rock musicians here on the Ultimate.Guitar.Page .

As for the suggestions to take part:

1. Join in! No matter where, when and with what. You missed the first week? Don’t worry. Just jump in when it suits you.
2. Send us the link! The ping-back option does not always work so please leave a link in the comments of the post on the day you take part. Or leave it at the “Come Away With Me 2020 FB page“
3. Tag your post either with ” Come Away With Me Musical Challenge”/ #CoAwWiMeMuCh” / “Come Away with Me 2020 Musical Challenge” o/“CoAwWiMe2020MuCh” / . You can also use these as hashtags for Twitter and other Social Networks to give your post more exposure. If you add #blog and #music with your hashtags it will get you more readers.
4. No matter which music or country the prompt favours you create with it whatever you please. This is supposed to be a fun challenge and no chore.
5. I post a prompt for the next week with every “Come Away With Me 2020 post” I write.
6. If you like, use this picture for your readers to find the posts.

Please stay a little longer and find my poetry posts on The Bee Creates… on Weebly. Thanks!

You are more into photography? Then please check out my photo posts on Bee Wordless on Blogger.

You can also find my photos on Dreamstime (affiliate link, you do not need to buy anything but if you do I get 10% from your purchase).

Just one more thing before you go: The hospital that is treating me is fundraising for a dedicated breast cancer unit which would allow same-day diagnosis and better premises for patients and staff.

Please, if you can spare a little money hop over to their Just Giving Page and give as little or much as you can. Or share the page on your social media. Your support means a lot to me! Thank you very much.

Thanks my dears, for staying with me until the end. I appreciate your presence. Please stay safe, stay kind and remember that you rock!