Thanksgiving and More on Two Sides of the Planet

THE HEALING ARTS ON THE ISLAND

If you need healing, Maui is the place to do it. It’s one of the major epicenters of self-help, healing, and New Age practice in the U.S.—but in a very specific way. It’s known for yoga and meditation retreats, somatic and trauma-informed work, breath-work, sound healing, Reiki, plant-based and wellness detox programs and just about any form of healing. There are other U.S. hotspots such as Sedona, Ojai and Sante Fe, but Maui feels less “performative,” and more inward-focused.

Each time I come to visit my daughter, she sets me up with one or more of her healer friends. Last time I was recovering from the flu. This time I’m recovering from a ruptured disk. She set me up with her favorite Osteopath, John Impey, one of those highly respected, word-of-mouth bodyworkers in Maui, rather than someone with a big online presence—which is actually common here (and usually a good sign). Two hours with John, as he worked his magic on my body including about 20 minutes lying on a Pulsed Electromagnetic Field Mat (PEMF) with infrared wavelengths (on which I quickly fell asleep), revived me, but that was just the beginning.

Next was a Gyrotonic®/Gyrokinesis® session with Joyanna Ananda who keeps the same low, local profile as John Impey. Her specialty is the Gyrokinesis® method, along with a gentle flow of Qigong/Yoga designed to “support the end of the day needs to release, relax and renew.” I had two private lessons with her this past week, both with and without equipment, that obviously helped strengthen my back. She measured my height, which has sadly reduced by more than an inch since the last time I looked (too many years to count), but after one session with Joyanna, I had grown a quarter of an inch just by training and elongating my spine.

The belief is that Gyrotonics will be a better solution than Pilates to get my spine in good shape, so I’ve set out to find practitioners in Paris and Nice. In Paris it was a piece of cake—a studio is just a few short blocks away from home. Nice is another story. It hasn’t quite caught on there, yet…but if anyone knows of an instructor/practitioner in the Nice vicinity, I’d be delighted to know more about him/her. (Email me)

WATCHING THE WHALES PLAY

The day before the big Thanksgiving feast, we set out in a friend’s speed boat from the port at Māʻalaea to see if we could spot a few whales or two. Out on the water was heavenly enough, but we got very lucky and spotted many whales, both adult and babies. Maui is one of the best whale-watching locations on Earth. The North Pacific Humpback Whales (Kohola) are the stars of the island, so that’s likely what we saw. Ten to 12 thousand migrate to Hawaii each year and what you can hope to see are their breaching, fin-slapping, singing, birthing, and nursing calves. The peak Season is mid-January to early April, but early arrivals can be seen in late October or November. Māʻalaea harbor is also one of the best spots.

It so exciting to see their blowing out (sometimes rising 10–12 feet) and breaching and “showing the fluke”—when the whale raises its tail high as it begins a deeper dive. That’s the best part of all! We were surrounded by them, at least a dozen, and if we could have seen them from the sky, that would have been the best of all.

GIVING THANKS

My Thanksgiving Day was 11 hours later than the Thanksgiving Dinner we sponsored in Nice with almost 100 of our clients, friends, readers and staff dining at one time at Le Carré d’Or. As I couldn’t attend, I sent a short speech for our staff to read to the attendees. Ella Dyer, Katie Archer and Katie Friedland had the pleasure of reading it.

Before I even woke up, I had this text message from Patty Sadauskas:

“We had a fabulous Thanksgiving Dinner in Nice today. Nearly 100 people were there. Thanks to Team Nice for their assistance! And also thanks to Le Carré d’Or for creating such an excellent dinner.”

She sent photos—a few of them are here for you to see. Here’s the message Ella, Archer and Katie read on my behalf:

Dear friends of our wonderful Nice community,

As you gather today to celebrate Thanksgiving together, please know that even though I’m not able to be there in person, my heart is absolutely with you—right there at the table, savoring the warmth, the camaraderie, and the spirit that makes this community so extraordinary.

Thanksgiving is a time to reflect on gratitude, and when I think of the blessings in my life…you—our clients, our readers, our friends, our staff and our ever-growing family in Nice—are among the very top. You are the reason we do what we do. Your trust, your enthusiasm, and your dreams of creating a life in France all make our work not just meaningful, but truly joyful and rewarding.

Nice has a special magic of its own, and each of you adds to it. You bring your stories, your courage, your humor, and your willingness to embrace a new chapter of life. Together, you’ve created a community that is supportive, curious, international, and wonderfully warm. Whether you’ve been here for years or you’re just beginning your French journey, you are part of something vibrant and unique.

Today, as you enjoy good food and great company, I hope you feel how grateful I am for each of you. Thank you for allowing me—and my team—to play a role in helping you make France your home, your adventure, your dream realized.

May your holiday be filled with lively conversation, new friendships, and the simple pleasure of being together in this beautiful city by the sea. And may the coming year bring you good health, smooth transitions, happy surprises, and plenty more opportunities for us to gather again—in Nice, in Paris, or wherever life leads us.

I’m raising a glass from afar with admiration, affection, and deep gratitude.

Happy Thanksgiving to our exceptional Nice community!

Adrian

Eleven hours later, I gathered with about 30 of Erica’s Maui friends at a friend’s house they call “The Farm,” where he lives mostly outdoors: the bedroom and an office are enclosed, the bathroom is semi-enclosed and the kitchen and living room are roofed, but open to the elements. (He claims, that yes, it does get cold, but it makes him a stronger person!) A big table was set up outside on which everyone’s pot-luck dishes were placed, along with three different kinds of turkey—one roasted, one smoked and another in a traditional Hawaiian Imu underground earth oven that cooks food slowly and tenderly.

I was clearly the oldest person at the dinner, by about 20 years. Kids were all over the place. The food was delicious. It was exactly what one might expect from a Thanksgiving Dinner on Maui!

MAUI MEDICAL CARE

While we were on the boat whale-watching, I started to sneeze…a lot. I didn’t think much of it till later that night when the sneezing turned into a runny nose and coughing, not to mention feeling pretty lousy. Immediately I started a wellness routine by using a nasal steamer, popping immune-boost pills (Wellness Formula) and a variety of other things my new age daughter insisted I do or take. I was very close to abandoning Thanksgiving Dinner altogether. Instead I dosed up, donned a surgical mask, mustered up as much strength as I could and while at the dinner, stayed as far away as I could from the guests while still having as much fun as possible. She drove me home early and went back to her friends for the rest of the festivities. I got in bed.

The entire night was spent getting up and down, steaming my nasal passages as much as possible, then awoke to give Erica the bad news: I better get my buns to a doctor or clinic before it got worse and I wouldn’t be able to travel to Los Angeles on Wednesday. We found a clinic not too far away and headed there. There was a two-hour wait, but we used that time to get lunch, do a bit of errands/shopping and head back over.

The care at the clinic was good enough and very nice. It was a simple sinus infection that antibiotics, probiotics and nasal spray will cure, but the cost of it all was another sticker shock: $350 for the clinic and $60 for the prescriptions. If this had happened in France, even without any health insurance, a doctor could have come to my home (SOS Médecins) for between 26.50€ and 86.00€ depending on the time of day the doctor comes. The prescriptions would have cost 2.50€–3.00€ for antibiotics (!!), roughly 10€ to 25€ for a month’s supply of probiotics and the nasal spray might be as much as 5€ to 10€.

Fortunately I always take out travel health insurance when visiting the U.S. as I have no healthcare coverage here. My “mutuelle” insurance in France will cover emergencies, but based on the French scheduled rates…not the U.S. (!) and that means almost nothing.

The bottom line is that it was a worthwhile visit, as (hopefully) the travel insurance will cover it and I can rest assured to be well-enough to travel on Wednesday.

JR’S ADVENTICE—CLOSING SOON

I wish I could find the time to visit JR’s “Adventice” in Carré Sainte-Anne, Montpellier before the show closes January 4th.

JR is a French contemporary artist known for creating monumental black-and-white photographic installations in public spaces around the world. He began as a teenage graffiti artist before shifting to photography, pasting large-scale portraits on buildings, rooftops, borders, and monuments without formal permission. I am sure you have seen his work, even if you didn’t know his name.

His work focuses on social justice, identity, and visibility—giving a voice to overlooked communities. Major projects include “Portrait of a Generation” in Paris’s “banlieues,” “Face2Face” on the Israeli-Palestinian border, “Women Are Heroes,” and the global participatory Inside Out Project, launched after he won the TED Prize in 2011.

JR maintains a partially anonymous persona (often seen wearing sunglasses and a hat) and continues to blur the lines between street art, photography, activism, and community engagement, transforming public spaces into platforms for collective storytelling. I met JR years ago via my daughter—when he attended one of her exhibitions—then a few times since in Paris. Once, when he wasn’t wearing his iconic hat and glasses, I remarked that I would never have recognized him. He just laughed and responded, “That’s the point.”

After seven long years behind closed doors, Montpellier’s Carré Sainte-Anne finally reopened last January—and it didn’t tiptoe back in. It returned with a bold new exhibition by JR, transforming the former church into an immersive, contemporary sanctuary.

“Adventice” taps into a surprising slice of local history. In medieval times, bales of wool arriving from Spain, North Africa, and far-flung markets carried uninvited passengers—tiny foreign seeds. Instead of dying off, they flourished in the Mediterranean climate and ultimately led to the creation of France’s first botanical garden.

The word “adventice,” from the Latin “advenire” (to come from elsewhere), once referred to unwanted weeds. Today, we know better: these outsiders are biodiversity heroes, feeding pollinators and enriching soil. Think of the cornflowers and poppies we now romanticize across the French countryside—they began as strangers, too.

At the center of the nave stands a towering tree, cloaked in more than 10,000 photographic hands submitted from around the globe. Step closer and its roots appear through anamorphosis, while a heartbeat pulses from within—reminding us that communities, like trees, grow stronger through what they gather.

Along the church’s side aisles, JR unveils five new wood-and-paper pieces from the Adventice series—shown for the very first time—reframing the idea that what comes from the outside can transform everything within.

Visitors are invited to scan and add their own hand, becoming part of the work rather than simply observing it. I would love to be a part of it, but I can’t. Maybe you can?

Carré Sainte-Anne
2 Rue Philippy
34000 Montpellier, France

ESCAPE TO FRANCE 101

We’ve done them before and we’re going to do them again…Group Consultations. You’ll be reading about this in great detail on Wednesday, but just to give you a taste: Patty Sadauskas and I decided we could do two consultations with both of us together on Zoom with six people (no more than six; no fewer than three).

The dates and times chosen are December 11th at 5 p.m. CET (France time, 8 a.m. Pacific, 11 a.m. Eastern) and December 16th at 4 p.m. CET (France time, 10 a.m. Pacific, 10 a.m. Eastern), each for 90 minutes, the usual duration.

The cost is less than 28% of the cost of a consultation with me and less than 39% of the cost of a consultation with Patty (!), and you get both of us for a double-whammy! This gives you the chance to get your own questions answered about how easy it is to move to France plus hear other people’s questions and concerns, as well as make friends! It’s a win-win for everyone.

As I said, you’ll be reading about it in greater detail on Wednesday, but if you’re ready to register for the group consultation now, do so!

A la prochaine…