Love at first sight

the look | article 3

22.10.2020
Complementary views

It’s a blond facade that stands out in the distance. A silhouette that shimmers like gold under the setting sun. To reach it, you have to trace your way through interlacing small roads. The corners succeed one another. Follow the vines, turn right at the corner of a low wall, head towards the cluster of trees, let yourself be guided, as if attracted by an irresistible magnet. As the journey progresses, its profile escapes our gaze, then, out of the corner of our eye, it comes back into view.

The road suddenly drops down. This is the highest point. Intuition suggests that we broaden our field of vision. Yes, there, on the right, beyond the small wooden gate. Advance quietly under the tree canopy and admire the castle standing before us. The perfect volumes, the softness of the stone, the discreet elegance. Free of ostentation, and yet so present. Simply beautiful. Overwhelmed by the feeling of having arrived, we know, right from the first glance, that we are in the right place.

Curiosity prevails, of course, and we slip inside. The perspective, at the end of the corridor, draws us in, allowing us to discover a landscape, as eye catching as a show. A kind of authentic “wow effect”.

The view goes far. The line in the distant sky is that of the cable-stayed bridge that crosses the Garonne, more than twenty kilometres away. Embrace the entire horizon, savour every detail: the little house nestled in the hollow of the vines, the red roses that dot the rows, the labyrinth of plots that intermingle, the village of Saint-Emilion and its bell tower that stands tall between heaven and earth. The elements distinguish themselves so as to better merge into a completed world. Everything is beautiful, everything is photogenic. Instagrammable, some would say.

But more than in a photo, it is really in a corner of our minds that we would like to print this scene. Or in our hearts. Who knows? What if it is really there that we treasure the images that we want to be able to turn to so as to feel better?

“Love at first sight”, say the Anglo-Saxons. It would only take one glance. To love. To project yourself. To consider the possibilities. It is according to the distorting prism of experiences, of the moment, of each and everyone’s involvement, that these images write a different and unique story. Whether here or elsewhere, from the first glance, all of them stir up a wave of emotions in us. And bring us back to the world of Troplong Mondot.