October 26th, 2024

Welcome to our mini-Festival of Correspondence within today’s Apéro at the French Library / Alliance Française of Boston & Cambridge.

After visiting our Letters Trellis tent at a nearby farmers’ market in Winchester, MA, Barbara Bouquegneau invited us to bring our program as a pop-up activity to the library.  We present a unique opportunity to bring back the art of written correspondence by taking a seat with pen and paper to write a letter to a loved one or friend.  

This initiative echoes an annual weekend in honor of Madame de Sévigné, a celebrated French letter writer of the seventeenth century.  Each summer her legacy is remembered in a four-day festival in Grignan, France where she addressed hundreds of letters to her daughter.  These missives are but a part of the volumes of her epistolary writings that have been collected and published.  

Grignan is a medieval village situated in the Drôme department of southeastern France centered by a grand chateau.  Throughout the encircling streets of this structure are some 20 writing areas (chambres d’écriture) furnished with writing paper, envelopes, pen and ink.  Visitors are invited to write a letter to be stamped and posted as a service to festival attendees.  

In addition to the presentations, each year features a market for literature, music and expositions.  Other surprises may also arise, as in 2002, a costumed courier arrived on his bicycle to deliver pre-written letters to “a person who is celebrating a birthday”, “someone wearing red clothing”, “a visitor who is engaged to be married” or some other likely category of visitor who might enjoy receiving a letter.  

The “Festival de la Correspondance de Grignan” was begun in 1996.  In the following 28 years, the program has featured the collected letters of notable personalities, with lectures, art, music, theatre and films on a variety of themes.  Themes have included Letters in Exile, Family Letters, Letters from Belgium, Letters in one’s Youth, Letters of Love and Hate, and Letters from our Heroes. 

Letters Trellis also selects a theme each month.  For October, it is Harvest as we appreciate the harvest from nature and friendship.

Harvest

The autumn season provides us with an opportunity to appreciate the harvest of foods and friendship.  The two are connected by the care given to each type of harvest.  With plants, it is the care and tending of good soil and adequate water that leads to flowering and fruit.  In friendship, time and tending can vary with each friend.  Words and exchange of ideas are one way to nurture a relationship.  When written, words reinforce past experiences and may bring change, understanding and/or appreciation to the forefront.  

Sometimes it is difficult to begin a letter.  Thoughts can be elusive as the falling leaves that are difficult to catch as they float by mid-air.  If you sit below a tree on autumn days, though, eventually a leaf will find its way to you.  In a similar way, sitting quietly with pen and paper, thinking of the person to whom you will write, ideas form, and your words will follow.

You can find inspiration by taking a broad look at the months ahead.  It is a time that recalls friends who shared school days, workdays, and family gatherings around the holidays.  Especially in New England, where wardrobes change to sweaters and scarves, more hours are lived indoors, with a chance to sort through written materials that couldn’t vie for your attention on a warm summer night.  Perhaps you will find a written piece, photo, or illustration to include in your envelope, something that awaits your comment or expresses a shared interest with your reader.  

We invite you to write a letter to someone who you are recalling as part of the autumn season.  The days are shortening, and the air is cooling.  Your letter can be an anecdote to nature’s closing of summer days.  

Please stop by our tent at the Winchester Farmers Market. Letters Trellis provides stationery, envelope, postage, and letter writing consultation for free. You can find additional ideas and writing on our activity pages prompts at https://www.letterstrellis.com .

[2024-10-24 updated]