GG Petit

Laure Petit grew lavender on the Valensole plateau in Provence for fifty years, the long purple rows that photograph beautifully in July and mean a fortnight of very hard work in the same month. She retired, a neighbour brought a board to the table one evening, and she has been at it ever since. She thinks out loud, at length, and asks her opponent afterwards whether that was the right thing to do. She loses more than she wins and does not appear to have noticed. What she likes is the evening: the board out, someone across from her, a decision to turn over slowly. Fifty years of waiting for a crop to be ready leaves you unbothered by a game that takes half an hour. The dice she has entirely made peace with. She shakes them beautifully, at some length, and says the shaking has never been the problem.