Our last morning at the chateau in Bordeaux, I pulled open the tall narrow windows and thrust my head out into the ebony pre-dawn. Just in front of me was Jeremy’s curve of stars spinning from Gemini to Orion—my first glimpse of that glorious golden mean since last winter.

At 6:45 when we departed, the full moon illiminated the vineyards, and as we rode an hour to the train station on the first leg of our two-day journey home, I watched the sun brush a faint glow across the eastern sky and the stars fade into a brightening blue.