slow morning routine in a french countryside chateau

Auto-captioned from the film, lightly cleaned. Elena's words, not edited prose.

thank you so I've been traveling quite a bit this summer and I wanted to change my usual pace of living in the city and kind of experience a different way of life so I found myself here in the French Countryside and honestly for the first time in a while I've really learned to actually take things slow and have a routine that brings me quite a bit of peace and joy foreign from probably one of the coolest places I've ever waking up I'm currently staying in Chateau in the French Countryside for a week it's an absolute dream come true so for how I got here I should explain a little bit my brother rented this out for his 30th birthday and invited 20 friends so there's over 20 of us here when you invite that many people to such a cool accommodation like this and end up being about 50 per person every night which is crazy actually really special having such a full house like there's always somebody to chat with to play a game with you can also really easily find your own space and quiet admit throughout the property it's a really beautiful way of seeing how simple and slow life can be I'm coming from the exact opposite in New York and having this very slow peaceful Pace I can feel changing my whole body and the way I sleep and the way I feel and the way I breathe I've been sleeping better than I have in months and I just feel like the stress leaving my body so lovely to be here Ricky what's so special about it too is you're so surrounded by almost a simple kind of nature these beautiful trees and like light falling through you have the constant sound of birds and you can just smell like the roses and the Jasmine at the air at all times there's this kind of peace with almost having so few options of what to do you're kind of pared down to the simple living you know it's almost like being a kid in summer again where outside of work it's bike rides and reading books and playing games and going for long walks and exploring forests love love to do this for a full month or two and just work them out and kind of experience this very different style of living than anything I've ever tried before trying to start each day pretty slowly trying to get up before everybody else we're slowly waking up doing my little journaling and the things that ground me and make me feel at peace let's see Sage you're gonna go to bike ride has been pretty similar and I've honestly really loved the Simplicity obviously the location is stunning but the hours are passed in a very simple kind of childlike way almost we spend most of our days just being outside going on bike rides playing games going for a swim making a meal I'm so grateful to be able to experience this here with some of my best friends and family but a lot of these practices and slow moments I'm excited to take with me wherever I go please euphoric some runs you go on can't wait for it to be over and some you just get that Runners high and you're distracted by the beauty and your music and oh my gosh that was so lovely I finished a half marathon a couple weeks ago and I'm taking my workouts very easy listening to my body not overdoing it I'm gonna shower up now get ready for the day have a very late breakfast almost brunch now at this point when I move d this year contrast to New York could not be more vast but we are so happy here this is really just showing us and everyone here having this kind of Stillness and slowness to hear your own thoughts and create space to think and like just drop into your body is really important could not recommend enough and obviously doesn't need to be in a place as Grand as this but even if it is it's quite cost effective I feel like my my mind is so at peace I think what's also really cool about being here too specifically with this Chateau is you kind of feel like you're immersed in this history and like it's really fast and you think about who's lived here before and how they looked out on this similar Beauty like I was saying being surrounded by this level of history and art has honestly been a pretty surreal experience it's felt very creatively inspiring and grounding in a way to think back over all the years of History that's taken place here the Chateau also has been in the same family since the 17th century and has only been open as a rental for a few years now well there's definitely more of a holiday mentality going on here this summer there's still some work to be done I love working alongside some of my best friends we've got Gabby and Ashley I find myself much more efficient when I'm around others who are working and I'm like making use of the property and I find it helpful to switch up places for different tasks so I sometimes get a bit of work done in the dining room or the carriage house or out here in the yard where there's no Wi-fi so distractions are limited besides some other friends or in this case my dad coming to chat which is always a welcome visit found myself really slowly shifting my perspective of time here with these long days and carving out mindful space for those things that really make you happy and centered