you don't always have to leave the place you are staying in in order to experience something new. sometimes it's just fine to stroll through an already known area, a familiar landscape, the streets of a city you've been to plenty of times. sometimes you rediscover your love for that place again, looking at it with different eyes or just realize that you are content and at peace in this locality. le val-d'ajol is such a place for me. no matter how often i set out to do a little walk or tiny hiking tour around this village, i always discover something beautiful and it soothes my fickle and always overthinking mind for quite a while. i feel at peace, strangely, even though i know that i'll be feeling unstable very soon, at least until i return to the reality, my reality in germany. sometimes it all feels like a dream, the places i've been to and dreamed about and am in love with looking back. there's so much beauty around us, but it all falls back as soon as you have to deal with a job you don't exactly love to work at, or with people you don't like, or with yourself, you and your insecurities, your shortcomings and failures.
it's always a little strange to look back in time at my pictures, to see that indeed there is something out there that is worth staying alive for, even though you might feel utterly lost and forgotten in the moment. it is bitter sometimes to get to know places, knowing you'll love them, but at the same time having to leave them as time's running up and you have to face your confined surroundings again.
but at least you have the memories, and maybe that's all you need for the time being to continue on a path that looks like a black hole swallowing universes.
morning mist.
bright pink glory.
couldn't get enough of it.
the slight fog was really magical.
looking down onto leyval, which is a village that's part of the commune of le val-d'ajol - and the place where we rented our chalet.
signs of autumn.
cat in a window. ( it's a cat heaven up there )
cows in the shadows.
path of happiness.
one of my most favourite things ín the vosges mountains are the old farm houses everywhere, nestled perfectly into little hillsides.
forest light.
far in the back you can see le val-d'ajol, the main village.
we met horses.
the morning sun was illuminating the woods we strolled through in such a beautiful way.
more cows.
blood red leaves are filling up my heart with joy like almost no other thing in this world.
barn ruins.
there are a lot of crosses strewn all over the valley, about 145 to be exact. there's even a hiking circuit that leads you to the most historic crosses in the valley. it's quite an egg search finding some of the crosses.
found a cute butterfly.
another cross was 'crossing' our way.
typical farm house of the vosges mountains. i especially love the wide archways.
ha, this post features a lot of kittens.
we stopped by our chalet for a small rest, to drink some coffee and eat some cake before taking another stroll down into the village. we found this young cat under our balcony table. there were a lot of cats rummaging around our house, sometimes you could find them on our door stoops, cuddling with each other, other times they were just passing by and looking at us indifferently. it's truly like a kitten paradise up there.
the city hall of le val d'ajol.
notre-dame de l'assomption.
one of the main plazas in le val-d'jaol.
found some alien plants in front of a hiking route board.
and a kitten on our balcony table in the evening. <3 p="">
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