A conversation with Jenny Cundy, born in England, now living in rural south-west France.
Listen to Jenny tell how she met her husband Bob Cundy and became his assistant as they traveled the world creating documentaries as freelance film photographers and how they ended up settling in a small, remote village in France.
Bob passed on a few years ago but Jenny still lives in the old farmhouse that she and her husband restored, where she leads a busy life dividing her time between her large garden, her tiny pond with two frogs, costume sewing for the local English theatre and she is always ready to lend a helping hand to friends.
She recently decided to take up painting again, something she hasn’t done a lot of since photography became her career. And it is never too late, she has started taking painting classes.
Our conversation moves between reminiscing and talking about books we have read and what we both love to cook.
And clothes. For a fashion aficionado, she is very down to earth (I think gardening does that to people).
Her favourite accessory is scarves. And she always wear a curated collection of interesting bangles and bracelets.
I couldn’t resist asking for a selfie with Jenny before I left, displaying our matching sun hats in her sun-drenched courtyard:
Perfumes
We discovered a mutual love of luxurious scents, and discussed our different taste in perfumes.
Jenny’s favourites: Guerlain Mitsuko (the vintage edition), Guerlain Shalimar
Jorunn’s favourite: Frederic Malle Superstitious
Books
Jenny recently finished River Kings by Kat Jarman. In the same vein, she recommends The Ancient Paths about the Celts by Graham Robb.
She is presently reading Night and Day by Virginia Woolf.
After we turned off the recording, we returned to the topic of Virginia Woolf and Jenny talked about Virginia Wolf’s book Flush - A Biography, which is about the beloved dog of Elisabeth Barrett Browning. Barrett Browning loved her dog so much. Here is her poem called To Flush, My Dog. I hereby add Virginia Woolf’s book about Flush to my reading list, and thank Jenny for her time, it was such a wonderful conversation!
Connect with Jenny via her photos
To see some of Jenny’s food and people photos, they are available here.
How to connect with me:
You can find more content from me and lots of stuff about simple and efficient dressing with Scandinavian simplicity here.
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