Notre Vie Juteuse

A quiet Sunday market

2012-01-08T19:54:00.000+01:00

Today was a rainy day, so no climbing for us. We always laugh because we normally turn left out of our door to head to the car to go climbing or a trail to go hiking. If you turn right you go into the center of the village, we don't turn right much. But since we were home we decided to go right. Our Sunday market is lovely, I enjoy it more in the winter, because it's quiet and there are only locals. In the summer it's packed..too many people for me. Here are some random shots of our market today.

Rodellar, Spain

2011-12-13T21:22:00.000+01:00

Me and Stella in the car

On the 5th of December we got up and pulled up the local weather, which is something we do everyday. To our surprise it called for 7 days of rain or drizzle. We have had a very mild winter so far, so we shouldn't complain, but we both didn't want to be stuck in the house for a week.

So Bruce suggested we head down to Spain. The weather looked great and we both wanted to visited Rodellar, which is famous for it's climbing. Why not, it's only a 6 hour drive and we deserve a little mini vacation. So on Wednesday morning we packed up the car with our climbing stuff, food for a week and the dogs. It was a beautiful drive through the French Pyrenees, through the Bielsa tunnel and into Spain. It was then only an hour to Rodellar.

Heading into the Pyrenees

Rodellar is the last small village at the end of the road. From Rodellar north you enter the Guara National Park. It was founded in 1990 and is one of the largest protected areas in this region of Spain, called Aragón. There are amazing cliffs and rock formations that have been partially sculpted by the erosion of water. The skies are full of golden eagles, falcons and the griffon vulture (which is 4 feet long and has a wing span on 9 feet). These birds, and many others have found a sanctuary here, one of the last remaining places on the planet where they can live and breed.

Welcome to Rodellar

Then tiny village of Rodellar is divided into two small neighborhoods: one belonging to the church and the other which is home to many striking, traditional buildings, most dating back to the 18th century.

We are here for the amazing climbing (limestone), but this area is also know for fishing, canyoning, via ferrata and hiking, as there is a network of paths.

The happy couple.

A route I climbed...it's very steep here.

The church of Rodellar

Another climbing area, there are so many around here

Rest day hike - 3.5 hours...not much of a rest day!

Happy dogs!

We are staying at a place called Valle De Rodellar. It is a group of apartments, for 1-6 people. Our little apartment is amazing. We have a kitchen, bath ,with loads of hot water, heat and the most comfortable bed...all for 30 euros a night (low season). We haven't even used the car since we arrived on Wednesday. There is no need, we brought all our food and the climbing and trails are walking distance from our apartment AND they take dogs, with no fee.

We have had an amazing time and the dogs have too. We are thinking of returning to France either tomorrow or Friday, because the weather is turning cold. It has been in the low 50's during the day, which is perfect for climbing, but it is moving towards the low 40's, which is a bit too chilly for me and my fingers.

All I can say is that if you are looking for a weekend away or for a vacation, this place is beautiful. We will be back in the spring for sure.

Culinary Retreat - May 12-19th 2012

2011-11-25T10:13:00.000+01:00

We have finalized the dates for our next Culinary Retreat and are so excited!

Raison d’Art is excited to announce our Spring 2012 Culinary Adventure with Chef Carol Cotner-Thompson. Together we are pleased to offer an unforgettable 7-day journey to the heart of southwest France. Spend a week with us learning to cook wonderful new dishes with local, fresh ingredients and discover the food, culture and history that this ancient and authentic region is known for.

Carol has over 27 years professional cooking experience and over 20 years experience in culinary education. A graduate of both the professional cooking and pastry programs at the California Culinary Academy in 1986, Carol has since taken on a wide array of professional endeavors that includes extensive restaurant consulting and cooking experience, television and print food styling and on-camera chef work, recipe and curriculum development, catering, and stints as a personal chef. She currently teaches professional cooking and baking programs at the New School of Cooking in Culver City www.newschoolofcooking.com and has previously taught at L’Academie De Cuisine and the Epicurean School of Culinary Arts. Her work has been featured in the Los Angeles Times Food Section, the Hollywood Reporter, radio shows KCRW’s “Good Food” and “Weekend America,” and, most recently, on the morning television show, “Good Day L.A.”

Our itinerary for the week includes 5 hands-on cooking classes led by Carol, gourmet food and wine, wine tasting and vineyard tour, visit to a local cheese farm, shopping at the local outdoor markets, visits to the local medieval villages of Saint Antonin Noble Val, Bruniqual, Penne, St. Cirq, Montauban and much much more.

Life in France is all about slowing down, relaxing and being in the moment and your stay will allow you time to do just that. There is no pressure to join the group on specific outings, you always have the choice to follow your own inspiration for the day.

DATES:
Saturday May 12, 2012 – Saturday May 19, 2012
(Please plan on arriving at the Toulouse Blagnac airport on the 12th between 4:00 – 5:30 pm and schedule your departure on the 19th between 8:35 – 10:30 am.)

COST:
€2200 euros per person based on double occupancy
(small group of 6-8 people)

WHAT’S INCLUDED:
7 nights accommodation
Five (5) ‘hands-on’ cooking classes with Carol
Daily French breakfast
7 dinners
All beverages at the house
Vineyard tour and wine tasting
Cheese farm visit
City and Museum visit in Montauban
All admission and local group transportation for excursions & outings
Notebook with all recipes for the week
Ground pick-up at Toulouse Blagnac airport on Saturday, May 12th, 2012 and group drop-off at Toulouse Blagnac airort on Saturday, May 19th, 2012.

WHAT’S NOT INCLUDED:
Roundtrip Airfare to Toulouse, France
Lunches (while at villages)
Drinks and snacks outside of Le Sivadal

SAMPLE MENU:
Endive with Herbed Goat Cheese and Local Honey
Crispy Duck Breast with Gascony Cherries and Roasted Shallots
Potato Fennel Gratin
Haricot Vert with Persillade
Fig Galette with Lavender Crème Fraiche

If you have always wanted to see this beautiful, untouched part of France, now is your chance. We live here and know the best places to go. We'll take care of everything!
See you in France.

Another Year

2011-11-03T10:57:00.000+01:00

On October 23, 2010 we arrive back in France. This time for good, we hope. 2010 was crazy, but in a good way. We arrived back to the states in October 2009 after our year sabbatical. We weren't happy about having to return as we loved it here, but our business needed us. We thought that we'd have to stay another 3-5 years and then hopefully we'd return. But luck was on our side, when we got an offer from one of our clients to buy the business. So in October 2010, we rented out our house in Los Angeles (again), packed up all our belongings and the dogs (this time though we brought all of our stuff...this wasn't just a 1 year trial it was for good) and headed back. We sent our belongings in a crate and it took about 2 months for it to arrive. We did it. We moved back to France.

This year here has been amazing. Very different from our first year, which was just a trial. We now know people and know the area. It feels like home. This year we've visited many different places.

Paris
Fontainebleu
Bordeaux
The Pyrenees
Millau
Italy
Nice
as well as many many small villages

We had visitors from American, Eric came and celebrated his 40th birthday and Chris came and we went to Paris and Fontainbleu and climbed a lot! Steve and Lisa also came "back" as they visited us when we lived here in 2008.

in Paris with Chris

We opened a business in France, Raison d'Art, got officially registered, pay french taxes and had a very successful summer of teen art camps and in September 2 adult retreats.

We started rock-climbing again, something we hadn't done in 10 years. We now go (during our off season 3-4 x a week), we take a break June-August.

Bruce climbing at Capusin

Bruce bouldering in Fonainebleau

me climbing at Capucin

Bruce started painting again!

We've settled into our life here and it's wonderful. I never get tired of the views! We have 3 of the luckiest dogs, as they get to run off leash every day in the forest. We are lucky because we are with them. Life is simple and slow and well, just wonderful. We have amazing friends here and I can't think of a better place to be. I'm still not able to throw pottery though, as I don't have a studio or equipment and that makes me a bit sad, but I know it will happen, hopefully sooner than later.

Sometimes we pinch ourselves....we really did it and things are going great with the business, so we won't be leaving anytime soon. I love calling France my home.

4 months....

2011-09-26T20:56:00.000+02:00

last night with culinary retreat having dinner in Gaillac

That's how long I've been away from my blog. I've missed it, but I just haven't had any time to update it. The first week of June the roller coaster began. We left for Italy to meet our best friends for a week of catching up, drinking wine, eating good food and hanging out. It was amazing. We returned to France with 1 week to get ready for our summer art camps. We had (3) session this summer, all incredible.

We still rented a house for the summer (hopefully not next summer), which is great but hard on us. Because of the change-over dates we have to be in on a Saturday and out on a Saturday. So each session spent 2 weeks at the house and then 2 days in Toulouse. We basically have to move out of our house here in St. Antonin and then move back after each session, relax for 3-4 days and then move back into the rental house. It's so hard not having our own house. We had 22 kids come over the summer, from all over. USA, England and France. Every single one of them were amazing!

Session #1

Session #2

Session #3

So fast forward to August 14th. We are back in our house in St. Antonin and have 2 weeks until our adult retreats start. Again, we had to rent a house to accomodate everyone. This time we decided not to stay at the rental house, mostly because of the dogs (no pets at the house), but also because they are adults and we had Steve Edwards for the fitness retreat and Rachael from Chicks with Knives for the culinary retreat staying with the clients. Easier because we didn't have to move out, but hard because now we were getting up and driving 1/2 hour to the house and then at night we had to drive home.

Visiting Najac

In Saint Antonin for the Sunday market

cooking in the kitchen

Fitness retreat chillin

Yoga at the fitness retreat

One big happy "fitness retreat" family

The adult retreats were very different from the teen retreats, not in a bad way, just different. We had amazing clients come to both retreats and we made some good friends. We'll be doing another fitness retreat and culinary retreat in May. We finished the adult retreats on Saturday the 24th, got everyone to the airport and on their way back home. Then we came home and slept!

Day 3 - post retreats. We are still fatigued. Trying to get back to our normal schedule of working out, bruce doing his art and me focusing on the business. We had an amazing summer and business is good. Can't ask for much more than that! Oh, and we are still living in France with no plans to return to the states.

My goal is to update this blog more regularly now that I have the time. It feels good to be back.

The business

2011-05-25T18:24:00.001+02:00

Our summer art camps for kids are really shaping up. Our first session is already full and our second session only has 2 spots left. We do have a 5 spots in our 3rd session, but hopefully that will fill too. It's pretty exciting, being our first "real" summer running the business here in France. Our first group will arrive on June 18th and we have kids coming from the U.S., England and France. It's going to be an amazing time.

We have also decided to add some "speciality" retreats for adults in September and are partnering with chefs Suzanne & Rachael of Chicks with Knives for one and Fitness expert Steve Edwards for another.

We'll have a fitness retreat with Steve from September 10-17th and a cooking retreat from September 17-24th. You can check out our website for more information on these retreats. Raison d'Art.

Other than that, life is really good here. We love our village and new life here in France.

Free Delivery...in our village.

2011-04-30T18:21:00.000+02:00

Today we took (walked) one of Bruce's paintings over to it's new home at our friends house here in the village. I will miss this piece, as it's one of my favorites, but I'm also glad it has a new home.

Goals!

2011-03-19T10:57:00.001+01:00

While sorting through things this week I came across this book. I was given to me on my birthday in 1998 by my x-Mother-in-Law Susan and her partner Brian, with whom I am still in contact with and adore. In it she wrote "To live in France must certainly be one of the great pleasures in life. All our best for a wonderful year ahead. We hope your dreams come true."

I remember having a conversation with her in 1998 about our dream and goal...to live in France someday. 10 years later we took our sabbatical and moved here for a year and now we DO live here.

I'm a big believer in goals. Not "to do lists" but personal and professional goals. I have always written down my goals. When we started our business Art-Works studio in 2000, every 6 months I'd review the goals for the studio. All I can say is that when I write things down, they usually happen. I don't mean things like, 1 want to have 10 million dollars or I want to win the lottery. I always do short-term goals (3-6 months) 1 year goals, 3 year goals, 5 year goals and 10 year goals at the beginning of each year. Then after 3-6 months I review those and update for the next 3-6 months. It keeps me focused and it helps me visualize things when they are written on paper.

The goals can be whatever you want. For instance, for our new business here, we set a goal for this summer. We had hoped for 1 camp to be full. That's it. But we now have that camp full and 2 others are also running. I had put down that I wanted x number of children to sign up in January, x in February, x in March and so on. Most have happened. I started doing this at the art studio, I'd make a sign up sheet, set my goals for x number of kids to sign up each month and most of the time I'd meet or exceed that goal. I also do personal goals. In January I wrote that I wanted to climb this certain route by April 1st (a month ago I didn't think I'd make that goal, but last week I found a route to work on that 1 letter grade harder than my goal), start throwing pottery again, drink more water, etc.

Back in 1998 Bruce and said that in 10 years we would move to France. We wrote it down, it was a goal and it was always on our personal goal list each year. Funny, 10 years later we made it happen (only for a year) but now we are back, hopefully for good.

In the garden

2011-03-19T10:39:00.000+01:00

Our village house in Saint Antonin Noble Val has a little garden that's just perfect for us. Not too big and not too small. Most houses in the village don't have any outdoor space, so we are very lucky. Over the winter things got pretty messy in the garden with leaves, dead plants, etc. So yesterday we went to Jardiland and bought some new plants and flowers so we could brighten up the garden.

new pots, plants and soil

We also put flowers out front.

these are on the front of the house

This looks into our garden from our street

When we were done it looks so much nicer. Today it's calling for showers, but tomorrow starts 10 days of sun and one of the days it's prediciting 70 degree weather!

Fontainebleu & Paris

2011-03-13T16:43:00.001+01:00

Back in January we had signed up for two camp expos in Paris at 2 bi-lingual schools through an organization called Camp Experts. We had originally thought we'd stay in Paris, after all it's our favorite city. But then we decided that we had been to Paris many times and that maybe we'd stay about 30 minutes south in a town called Fontainebleu. Fontainebleu is famous for its chateau but also for its bouldering. Bouldering is a style of rock climbing undertaken without a rope and normally limited to very short climbs over a crash pad so that a fall will not result in serious injury. It's typically practiced on large natural boulders outside or on plastic holds inside. It's super fun.

The region around Fontainebleu is particularly famous for its beautiful and concentrated bouldering areas. French alpine climbers practiced bouldering there since the 19th century. It remains today a prime climbing location. It is the biggest and most developed bouldering area in the world. The climbing areas are located in the forested areas that surrounds the town. There are thousands of boulders and endless problems.

Our friend Chris is visiting from Colorado and he's a big climber. We thought it would be fun to stay in Fontainebleu and boulder during the day and then take the train in to Paris for our camp expos. We stayed at the Hotel Victoria and it was great. Spacious rooms, new bathrooms, clean, lovey people, centrally located in the town, parking and they take dogs (although the 12 euro breakfast is a rip off). We decided the goldens would stay with our friends Sara and Sharon and Stella would come with us. She needed a bit of special time with us.

We arrived on Sunday night, just in time for dinner. Our camp expos were Monday night and Tuesday night, so we figured we could climb in the am/early afternoon. We climbed on Monday and then mid-afternoon took the train into Paris. Chris had never been to Paris and neither had Stella, so they both went with us. Stella had a great time on the train into Paris and then she took the metro. We walked around the left bank and showed Chris the sites. Then we left him to wander and we went to our first expo. After the expo we met some friends for dinner and Stella even came into the restaurant with us. All was going great until we tried to get to the Gare de Lyon. The train going into the Gare was closed, so we had to walk over from the left bank. We missed the 2nd to the last train leaving Paris, so we got the last train out. Everything was going fine until the conductor mumbled "something" in French and we didn't quite catch all of it. Some people got off and then some people stayed on the train so we weren't sure what he said. 15 minutes later Bruce said "we should have been to Fontainebleu 10 minutes ago". Then we passed another station and another and finally stopped 5 stations away from Fontainebleu. It's now 12:30 am. It was the last train in and out. We found out that the conductor announced that they were working on the tracks and if you wanted to go to Fontainebleu or the other 4 stops after you had to get off the train and take a bus. So now we were 30 km away from Fontainebleu in the middle of the night. Luckily the workers were still at the station and they were so nice. They called us a taxi and he was there in less than 5 minutes. 50 euros later we were at our hotel. What a day!

Tuesday was beautiful and warm and we bouldered again the am and headed into Paris a bit later this time. Chris and Stella stayed in Fontainebleu and did some more bouldering on their own. Our expo was in the 15th, we didn't do any walking around, we just took the train in and the metro over to the school and then headed back to Fontainebleu around 8:00 pm. But it wasn't easy getting home again, there was an accident on the tracks (we think the incoming train hit a car) and it was delayed for 1/2 hour. So we waited and waited. Finally our train left Paris. We had thought we'd get in at 8:00 pm, but with the delay and the slow moving train we didn't arrive until almost 10 pm.

We were going to leave on Wednesday to come home, but the weather was so beautiful and we wanted to spend a whole day in Fontainebleu that we decided to stay another night. So glad we did, it was so much fun, we bouldered all day and then went for a great meal that night.

It was a super fun 4 days and only 6 hours from our home in St Antonin. We'll be back, for sure. I loved the town of Fonatinebleu and you're only 30 minutes by train into Paris. I highly recommend a visit there if you have never been. And, we got a few sign ups for our summer camps, so it was all worth while.

Stella on the train into Paris

bouldering

more bouldering

there they are

stella doing a bit of bouldering

trying a hard problem

but it did it

just chilling

Following the sun

2011-03-04T21:29:00.000+01:00

We checked the weather last week and it called for 6 days of cloudy skies and/or rain. So what do you do if you have no interest in that...jump in the car and follow the sun. We checked the weather down in Spain and it was sunny, clear and 55-60 degrees. We decided to go climbing at some places we've never been to. Since we had all 3 dogs and the weather was nice, we decided to camp. We packed up the car with our camping stuff, the dogs and our climbing gear and headed down to Spain.

We went just 1 hour west of Barcelona, between Reus and Lieida. We camped just outside of a tiny village called Prades at a great campsite. They had a restaurant, great hot showers and clean bathrooms and we were the only people there. I have never camped in such luxury!

We arrived last Monday night, pretty late. The next day is was sunny but the winds were crazy, so we didn't climb, we just walked around some small villages and went to visit two of the climbing areas. We are glad we went on a recon mission first. The first climbing area is well known and has amazing climbing, but it's all ledgy and not great for the dogs, the second place was beautiful and perfect for the dogs. So, on Wednesday we drove 40 minutes to Montsant and climbed there all day. It was beautiful but super hard, the routes were about 40 meters long, I haven't climbed on routes that long in a while. On Thursday we drove 1 hour to Margalef and it was our favorite place. We had a great day climbing and met some really nice people. Wednesday and Thursday were perfect days, no wind, sunny and warm. We had hoped to stay longer, but we had to be in Toulouse for our appointment (see post below) so we had to come home on Thursday night.

It's so amazing that you can just jump in your car and in 3 hours you're in Spain, 6 hours Italy, 5.5 hours Paris, etc. On Sunday we'll be heading up to Paris for a some camp fairs at two international schools in Paris. Instead of staying in Paris though (since we've been many times) we are staying 30 minutes south in Fontainebleu, which is known for it's bouldering. We'll be there for 4 days. Only 1 dog going, the 2 goldens will stay with our friends and we'll be staying in a hotel (no camping). Should be a great time.

Our Carte de Séjours

2011-02-26T10:29:00.006+01:00

When we moved to France for the first time back in 2008, we got our Long Stay Visa and then had to go to the Prefecture within 3 months of arriving in France to get our carte de séjour, which is a residency card. But this time it's a different process.

From the 1st of June 2009, long stay visa holders will be allowed to reside in France for up to 12 months according to the validity of their visa and purpose of stay. They will no longer be required to obtain a residence permit (carte de séjour) from the French local authorities (préfecture) as long as their visa is valid. However, they will have to apply for a carte de séjour at the préfecture if they intend to stay for more than a year or if they are renewing a resident permit such as vie privée et familiale.

What we had to do this time was register with the French Office of Immigration and Integration (OFII). Once we arrived we had to make a copy of our passport page showing when we entered France, copy of our passport, our address in France, the residence form that was included with our visa application, stamped by the consulate when they granted our visa and we had to send it in to OFII. Then we had to wait until we heard from them. We sent ours in November 1st, 2010 and 2 weeks ago we received the letter from them with our appointment time of Friday 25th of February at 1:30. We would have a medical exam and a chest x-ray (to rule out TB) and an interview.

We brought with us:

* passport,
* a proof of accommodation in France (lease, utility bill, etc),
* one ID picture (of your head only),
* payment for the processing fees of 55 € for workers and students or 340 € for visitors. Yes, 340 € for each of us! What you have to do is visit the Trésor Public to get "timbres" which are stamps with a value, get enough to cover the 340 euros and bring them with you.

We were in Spain 3 days leading up to our appointment and we tried to re-schedule it, but here is where being here in frustrating. We called the office no less then 15 times trying to get a hold of someone. It would ring 2 times, you'd get a message saying they'll be right with you, the message would play 3 times and then you'd get disconnected. It happened over and over and over. Argh! So we cut our climbing trip short by 3 days to make the appointment.

The office we went to was in Toulouse. We arrived at 1:30 and we thought we'd have to wait forever, but we were pleasantly surprised with how smooth things went. 1:30 we went in, 1:35 we had our interview, 1:50 we had our x-ray, 2:00 we met with the Doctor, 2:15 we met with the final person who reviewed all our documents, asked a few questions and placed our new carte de séjour on one of the pages in our passport and by 2:30 we were out of there. Amazing! I guess you pay the big bucks for service, although they could answer their damn phone.

So, we are official...for 1 year. We plan to stay after the 1 year, so in August we need to visit the Préfecture in Montauban and request another year. I'm not sure it will go as smoothly, I have heard it could be a nightmare and a long day, but I won't worry about that until August. Right now I'm just glad we have our carte de séjours.

When I was in with the nurse for the medical interview I heard Bruce talking to someone in English. When I went out into the waiting room he was talking to a couple and he told me they were American and introduced me. He then told me they were from California, from Los Angeles and actually lived about 2 miles from where we did. Small small world. They are retired and just moved here in September and live about 20 minutes from St. Antonin. They are hoping to stay too. The didn't speak French, so we helped them with what was going to happen during the appointment (because they people at OFII didn't speak English). Lovely couple and I'm sure we'll see them again soon.

From one extreme to the other

2011-02-01T10:23:00.000+01:00

When we moved here in 2008 for our 1 year sabbatical we had to get a car. We didn't want to spend a lot of money and a friend (you know who you are) recommended someone here in France who she bought her car from. We contacted him, told him our budget and he sent over some pictures of cars. We picked a little 1985 Peugeot station wagon (break as it's called here in France). We wired him money and he would meet us and have all the necessary documents/paperwork for us to get it registered here in France. Easy yes?

So we arrived in Paris and rented a car, big enough for the two of us, 2 large bike boxes, 2 dog crates and our luggage and drove over to the Dordogne department to meet our car dealer. When he drove up in the car we almost fell over. It looked much much older than in the pictures and the door had been dented (just happened 1 day before). Our new little Peugeot was a very old man. When we got in it we noticed that it didn't have headrests (can you say whiplash?), no seat belts in the back, no air conditioning, no radio. Alas, it's our car, we bought it, so we signed the papers and drove it off to our new home in the Aveyron, well Bruce drove it, I drove the rental car.

In Albi, we had to park on a hill because our starter went out (bump start)

In Belgium getting from fries from the Frituur!

We named him Claude, because that was the old man's name who had owned it before (it's only owner). Claude wasn't new and shiny, but he got us where we needed to go. We could put the seats in the back down and throw our bikes in, or put the dogs in, or carry fire-wood. He took us to Belgium and all over France. The problem with Claude was that he stuck out like a sore thumb and we found out in the winter that he only gave us heat when he felt like it. We had the oldest car in the area, maybe in the Aveyron. Everyone seemed to have new cars, but who cared. The Gendarme knew us too. We were pulled over 3 times. The first time for no reason, probably because he was old (the car not Bruce). That was an interesting experience. The Gendarme checked our paperwork for the car and Bruce's license. There were 3 police and they drove this big van type of thing, they took Bruce to the van and unfolded the "table" in the van and then they all got in, with Bruce. 30 minutes passed and he was still in there. One of the guys was looking through this huge book. Finally after 1 hour Bruce came back to the car, they didn't ticket him for anything, or tell him why they had pulled him over, but they were obsessed with his California drivers license and his International license and thought he had to change it over after being here for 3 months for a French license, but he couldn't find the answer in the big book. He told Bruce to go to the Prefecture and check. Then 2 weeks later, driving through Villefrance the same Gendarme saw us and pulled us over, wanting to see if Bruce had indeed checked with the Prefecture to see if his license was good here. He asked us in French, "did you go to the Prefecture" and Bruce, being the honest guy that he is said "No" and tried to explain that he was sorry and he'll go today. He did never go. I got pulled over on my way to the gym (alone, no license, no passport, no identification) because our plates were not from our department. Nobody told us that when we got into the Averyon we had to change our plates because they were from the Dordogne. So the police ticketed me and told me to go "right now" to the dealership to get new plates. I did! We sold Claude in October 2009 when we returned to the states for 400 euros. It was sad to let him go, he served us well and as far as I know is still on the road.

We we returned in October 2010 we knew we wanted another Peugeot, all the mechanics can work on them and they are very reliable. But we knew we needed a nice new car, for the business and for piece of mind. We found a 2010 Peugeot 207 (break) for a good price. And now we have gone from sticking out like a sore thumb with old Claude to being invisible. Every 4th car you see is a Peugeot and every other car is grey, like ours. We finally blend in. We have even tried to get in the wrong car a couple times! We haven't been pulled over by the cops, we have official plates, valid insurance, etc.

Our new Peugeot 207 sw

no that's not our house in the background

It was fun and an adventure having Claude but it's nice having our new car, she's reliable, has air conditioning, heat and a radio. We haven't picked a name for her though, nothing seems to fit, yet.

Petite Randonnées

2011-01-23T10:46:00.000+01:00

When we moved to St. Antonin, we visited the Office du Tourisme to pick up some maps and such. We kept seeing these little wooden signs posted with PR and a number. We found out that there are 23 different PR - Petite Randonnées around St. Antonin. What is a Raondonée you ask? Well, they are hiking/walking paths all around France. The French Federation of Hiking (FFRandonnée) is an association grouping together various clubs allowing hikers access to trails.

The mission of this federation is to maintain these routes and their markup as well as open new ones. The trails are marked with paint marks. Two types of itineraries are created by the Federation:

hiking paths ( GR )
walking paths and hiking ( PR )

These routes are described in guidebooks published by FFRandonnée. The marks are placed on trees, rocks and posts along the hike. The difference between 2 marks markup varies depending on the difficulty of the course, the number of bifurcation ... The markup is entirely staffed by volunteers and walkers for club members.

The FFRandonée has created several categories of roads:

The GR (Grande Randonée) trails are marked with red and white, they cross over long distances of regional parks, regional or even the whole of France;
The GRP (Grande Randonnée de Pays) are marked trails of red and yellow, they form loops of several days' journey;
The PR (Walks & Hikes) are marked trails with different colors marked by the PR RWPF are marked in yellow are generally trails lasting from hours to a day's walk;
The E (European Route), marked in green are GR linking European countries.

The book we got from the Office de Tourisme here in St. Antonin has 23 circuits around the village. It's a guide to all the Petite Randonées and it comes with directions on how to find the path and a map with all the PR's. We have decided to try and do them all. We always take the dogs, although sometimes the PR isn't on a trail it's on a road and that makes it a bit difficult with the dogs. Most of them are on trails though and you end up coming across amazing ruins, beautiful views, animals (llama, cows horses, donkeys), other hikers (although not very often) and peace a quiet.

Our favorite hike is PR 1. The first time we did it it took us 1.5 hours. Then we decided to make it our "timed" trail and we'd run it. Normally we do it when we need (or want) to burn some extra calories. We are trying to get it under 45 minutes, but so far 52 minutes is our best time. It takes us up from the village to the plateau and then around the village and back down. Today is actually a PR 1 run day!

Here's the start of our "timed" run trail - PR 1

This guy is about 7 feet tall...I kid you not!

Even the cows across the lane were afraid of him

Happy dogs.

Bruce found this at a ruin, it's now hanging in our house

So, if you live in France or are just visiting. Check out the local PR's in your area and take a hike. You'll never know what you might find!

A Lovely Review

2011-01-11T15:45:00.001+01:00

Back in December...seems like so long ago. I received a lovely review by fellow blogger Keith Eckstein at A Taste of Garlic. His blog reviews, shares and promotes other blogs about life in France. He actually did an amazing review of Notre Vie Juteuse, bringing up things I have totally forgotten about. This is my 3rd year blogging, which is totally crazy, but cool.

Check him out at A Taste of Garlic to see the review of Notre Vie Juteuse and then check back everyday for more blogs and great information.

Thanks Keith!

(These pictures have nothing to do with Keith's blog, I just felt like posting them for your viewing pleasure)

A visit to Penne

2011-01-07T21:31:00.000+01:00

Today we jumped in the car and drove 10 minutes to the tiny village of Penne. It's not a big village, there isn't any commerce (except for 1 restaurant), but it does have a beautiful riun and it's a lovely village for pictures.

Carcassonne

2011-01-07T09:58:00.002+01:00

Yesterday was a long day in the car. We drove to Carcassonne (a fortified city), about 2.5 hours away. It was cold and windy but worth the drive. Carcassonne is one of the day trips we'll take this summer with the kids through our business Raison d'Art. I just read that on the 14th of July (Bastille Day) they do an amazing fireworks show and with lights show the fortified city going up in flames. We might have to go for that, even though I read there were 700,000 people there last year.

Montauban

2011-01-06T11:16:00.000+01:00

We live about 40 minutes from Montauban. It's not the most beautiful city, but we seem to go there a lot. When we need to visit the Brico Depot or the big supermarche or our climbing gym. Yesterday we decided to play tourist in Montauban. We visited the Natural History Museum and then the Ingres Museum.

The Natural History Museum was pretty funny. Rooms full of stuffed animals...that was it.

Then we went to the Ingres Museum. We've been before, but thought Eric would enjoy it...and he did.

A great afternoon.

Our first guest and super bugs

2011-01-05T11:04:00.000+01:00

Eric getting a shot of Cordes Sur Ciel

On the 21st our good friend Eric came to visit. He has never been to France before and he turned 40 on the 23rd. The first 2 days were great. We visited villages, ate great food and drank some good wine. Then on the 23rd we went to a holiday party and it's been downhill from there. Come to find out about 3 people at the party had been sick, but not too sick (in their minds) to miss a good party. The next day 4 people were in bed sick. The day after Bruce got sick. But it wasn't too bad. The day after that Eric got sick and it was bad. Before his visit (actually 2 weeks before) he had bronchitis and this sickness went right to his chest. After 3 days he went to the Dr. and got put on steroids, antibiotics, etc. But he continued to get worse. Bruce was only sick for a few days, nothing big. But then I got sick and it hit me hard. I was in bed for 3 days. My head hurt, my body ached and I couldn't eat. Eric was still bad and getting worse.

New Years Eve our neighbors had a great party. Eric and I stayed home. Bruce went to the party without me. First time we spent New Years apart in 14 years.

I finally starting feeling better a few days ago. Still have a nasty deep cough but other than that I'm ok. Eric on the other hand isn't well. We took him back to the Dr. yesterday and he has pneumonia. Not fun when you are on vacation. He now has more powerful steroids, a machine that he has to put this medicine in and put a mask over his face and breath in the stuff. Today he actually feels tons better. But he leaves on Monday. We are heading out today, after being stuck here in the house for days.

The Dr. told us that the bugs here in France are different from the U.S. and that our bodies just don't have the antibodies to fight them, so we get it worse than people who live here. I thought working with kids for 10 years had made me pretty resistant to stuff, but now I'm starting all over again. Hopefully this will be the last sickness for us for a while.

Walking up to the top of Cordes

Eric taking a picture of us...and holding the 3 dogs

me and my big smurf hands

Back in the studio

2010-12-10T11:44:00.002+01:00

Village Series

Saint Antonin Noble Val, France

Conté on watercolor paper

30x40 cm (11.75 x 15.75)

It's been a while since Bruce has had a place to create his art. When we moved back to the states in 2009 we had to move into an apartment because our house was rented out. We had 2 bedrooms and 1 was our garage. In it were 4 bikes, Bruce's easel, all his paintings and the rest of our stuff we didn't have a place for. There wasn't enough room for him to paint.

Now that we are back in France we have 3 bedrooms. 1 is still our garage with a bed, our bikes, camping equipment, climbing equipment and miscellaneous stuff. The other spare room is his studio. It looks out onto the limestone cliffs and gets sun all day. It's a perfect spot for him. Since our return he's been creating many drawings in conté, watercolor and charcoal. But now it's time for some painting. We visited the art supply store yesterday and spent a fortune on oil paints, medium, gesso, etc. He's set up his "studio" and is excited to get back to what he loves, creating art.

He now has a website where he can sell his work. The first pieces up are his drawings and it will be updated regularly with his paintings and such. It's very easy to buy pieces from the site via Paypal (no account required), so if you are looking for some unique Christmas gifts, check it out. So much better than going to a mall and buying stuff that everyone else has. Why not give a one of a kind drawing or painting that someone can enjoy forever.

Here is the link to his site (just double click on Bruce Anderson Art)
Bruce Anderson Art

1 month

2010-11-20T12:34:00.000+01:00

Gaillac Vineyards

We've been living here in St. Antonin now for 1 month, exactly. It seems longer, seems almost like home. Fall has arrived and the colors are beautiful. We had a pretty warm October and November hasn't been too bad except for the last week or so. We have had rain and cold temps. Our belongings are still either on the boat or held up in England, we hope to get them sometime in December. I think once we do, it will really feel like home. I can't wait to get our stuff. First of all I'm tired of wearing the same thing. I keep telling people that I do have more than 2 sweaters and 2 pair of jeans. I could only bring 1 suitcase and with my boots, heavy jacket, sweaters and such it didn't leave much else. But luckily I'm not in Paris, people here don't care.

We've been social butterflies, which is pretty unusual for us. Back in Los Angeles we rarely went out, except with our best friends E and K. Once in a while we'd go out to dinner (just the two of us) or meet a friend for a drink or go to someones house for dinner, but it wasn't all the time. This is a very social village and everyone is so nice and friendly. We've seen some of our old friends and had dinner at their house, we've had dinner at some new friends house and we always go to quiz night once a week. Basically we're beat.

Last week was our 14 year anniversary. We got married on the 11th of November, which was also the day of our first day way back when. We stayed in, made nachos and drank wine. It was lovely. It's strange 14 years has passed, it's gone by so quickly. It still feels like new to me though, even though Bruce and I spend 24x7 together and have since we met. When I'm not with him, I miss him.

We went down to Ikea the other day to purchase some much needed things. I love Ikea. We picked up everything for an office for me (desk, chair, storage, etc...) and everything for a studio for Bruce (table, chair, lighting, etc...). So I now have my office and he has his studio. He been drawing every day which is wonderful.

The Village

Everyday I spent about 2-3 hours on the business - Raison d'Art. Either sending emails or brochures, working on itineraries for the camps, coordinating activities, or some type of marketing. We already have kids signed up for camps #1, #2 and #3 which is very exciting for us. Nobody yet for the women's retreat in May. I hope it will be something we can do, because I think it will be truly unique and inspiring for women. Most women put themselves last, so their kids can come to camp or do this or do that, but their needs are on the back burner. I'm trying to get women over here to unplug, do yoga if they want (we have the most handsome yoga teacher too), paint, do wine tasting, chill, visit villages, etc... focus on themselves for 10 days. Put themselves first for once. Work can wait, kids can wait, shopping can wait, driving all over can wait but this shouldn't wait.

We are planning on attending some camp fairs, which I think will be really good for us. Meet prospective campers, get our name out there. There are a few in the states (New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Florida). There is one in Montreal, one in Madrid, one in Milan and 3 in Paris. We are trying to figure out the one's in the states, but we know we'll do either Madrid or Milan and Paris. These are at International Schools, so I think they will be good. We are also trying to break into England and have someone there who will be working with us on getting into camp fairs and getting people interested. It's a 1.5 hour flight from London and a really inexpensive flight, so we have to try and break into that market.

We finally have internet, television a land line phone and a mobile phone. Which means we exist in France. It took 3 weeks to get everything set up and I'm glad I don't have to spend hours down at the cafe trying to work. I actually really enjoy having a land line phone too. We haven't had one since we lived here in 2008. I like the idea of a land line phone, being in one place, great connection, solid, grounded. Most people just use the cell, but I always go for the land line. I also miss my daytimer. I know, most people don't even use those anymore, but I'm going to get one again. I don't like everything on my computer or phone. I like to organize it, open it up every day and see what I'm to do, have my addresses written down in my handwriting. I know, I'm old-fashioned, but they are the best!

It's been a very interesting month and although the weather is getting cold we still bundle up and run with the dogs. They love it and so do I. We climb every day that it's dry and when our bikes come in December we'll start cycling again. Everyday is an adventure or a learning experience and I'm thrilled we took the plunge.

A day just for us!

2010-11-07T16:05:00.000+01:00

wer'e going up there...

The other day we went rock climbing at an area called Amiel. It’s 10 minutes from the house, which is incredible. It’s about a 20 minute hike up to the cliff, but so worth it. The cliff is south facing, so it is in the sun all day. It was about 60 here in the village and a bit windy, but up at the cliff it was about 75 and hot! I had shorts and a tank on and Bruce had his shirt off. It’s a perfect winter cliff. We even said that if we are not climbing and it’s a bit cold here in the village we just might go up and hang out in the sun. We took the dogs with us, they had a great time running around and just being with us. We both haven’t climbed in about 8 years. We stopped when I injured myself and after we moved back from Las Vegas (yes, we lived in Vegas), because the climbing there was pretty amazing too and coming back to Los Angeles, you have to drive so far just to climb. We also started surfing and then eventually cycling. I met Bruce through rock climbing, 15 years ago. He was my private coach for a year before we had our first date. He introduced me to camping and every weekend we’d hop in the car and go away climbing. It’s nice to be back in nature and climbing again. Moving here we knew we had to start climbing again, there are about 10 amazing cliffs within 15 minutes of our house.

The view from up at the crag

Just hanging out in the sun

Stella too

After coming back from climbing we went to our friends Tyrex and Henriette’s restaurant called Browns for Quiz night. We met T&H about 2 years ago when first lived in France. They had a table at the Sunday market here in St. Antonin and they sold Indian food. We bought some excellent curry dishes and then became friends with them. Their new restaurant is a 3 minute walk from our house. Quiz night is what it sounds like; it’s like trivial pursuit. There were 3 teams of 4 people and Tyrex gives us random questions and the team writes the answer on a piece of paper. There are 40 questions in all, but we do 20 and then score each other’s paper and then break for dinner and then continue with the other 20. Tyrex did a nacho night and I brought guacamole (because you have to have guacamole with Mexican food). The nachos were so so good. Our team consisted of Rob, Carl and Bruce and I and…we won! Quiz night is once a week, we’ll be back this week to defend our title.

Brown's

(Update: we went back again this week for quiz night and our team “the bush/blair haters” won again!)

Our Friday fiasco!

2010-10-24T20:51:00.000+02:00

First, let me say that we made it. We are here in St. Antonin, our new home. Now, let me tell you that Friday was a nightmare. Our experience here in France and Belgium makes our DMV look like a smooth running machine. I’m sure you’re laughing at that because we have all been to the DMV and it’s not a smooth running machine, but once you hear about our day, you’ll realize that I’m right.

Our Village

Look at those limestone cliffs

Looking out from out backyard

Our backyard

So, remember, we bought a car in Belgium and just needed to get it registered or get transit plates to take it into France and then we’d register it here in St. Antonin. There is a place in Brussels called the DIV and you can get transit plates there, but people told us it was not a fun place to go and you could wait in line for 4 hours or more only to be told you don’t have the required paperwork. So we checked on line and found that we could register the car in France at any Prefecture (which is new). So, we got all the necessary paperwork that is listed on the Prefecture’s website for registering the car and head down to Lille, France, about 50 minutes from where we were in Belgium.

Our new Peugeot

We had to pack up the car and check-out of the hotel since we were heading down to Lille and if we couldn’t get the car registered we’d have to continue down to St. Antonin, register the car and drive back up to Belgium to pick it up (not fun). So, the car is full of bags, 3 dogs and Bruce and I. When we arrived in Lille, we couldn’t or didn’t want to leave the car because of the dogs and all our stuff so I waited in it. 1 hour goes by and Bruce comes back from the Prefecture only to tell me that the first guy told him that he had to go to St. Antonin to register the car, but as those of you who are here in France know, all you have to do is ask someone else the same question at the Prefecture and you’ll get a different answer. So, he asked someone else. They told him that yes, you could register the car but you needed a “quitus fiscal” form filled out. Bruce asked if that was the VAT tax and he said no, it’s an import tax. But you couldn’t get it at the Prefecture; you had to go to the Tresor Public, which was across town. Argh!

It’s now 11:45 and we head over, really not knowing where we are going. We actually found it pretty easily but then drove around and around for 10 minutes trying to find parking. By the time we found parking it was 11:55, Bruce ran to the building but when he got there…it was closed for lunch until 1:30. Welcome to France.

We had lunch and went back at 1:30. But the guy Bruce spoke with told him that he could not give him the “quitus fiscal” in Lille, it can only be giving in the department you are living (but he couldn’t say why). He told him that if all we needed were “transit plates” to take the car to France, we could do that back at the Prefecture. So back to the Prefecture we go. When Bruce got there the guy he spoke with told him that they don’t give transit plates, but there was a shop next door that did (for 100 euros). So Bruce went in and that guy told him he couldn’t do it unless he had the “quitus fiscal”. Are you kidding! Bruce told him our story and that our car was in Belgium and he said he had a friend in Belgium that did transit plates and you didn’t need a “quitus fiscal” in Belgium. So he gave us his address (if that’s what you call it…more like a town and postal code) and said he was 30 minutes away, so off we went, back to Belgium. It’s now 3:00 pm. Our guy at the Peugeot dealership was only there until 5:00 and he’s not there on Saturday and we were NOT staying until Monday.

We finally, after getting lost 10 or so times, found the “transit plate” place. It was more like the back of a truck in the middle of the Belgian countryside. Shady for sure. They told us we had 2 options. The first was a Belgian plate, but they couldn’t get it until Monday. The second was a European plate and we could get that today, but “it had risks”. What kind of risks we asked. We were told that it’s valid throughout Europe but that it’s not recognized or in the law books in Belgium and France. And that if the police stopped us, which some do (but some don’t), they would take the plates and we’d be stuck. There was another man there, from Germany, and he told us he’s used these plates before and has never had a problem. He said, “go for it”. So, at 4:15 pm on Friday, we did. We just needed to get out of Belgium and really couldn’t afford to spend 3 more nights in a hotel and pay three more days for a rental car. We got the plates, rushed up to the Peugeot dealership and picked up our car. But we still had to drop off the rental car, and that was 30 minutes away. So off we went, to Brugge to drop off the car. We did that and then decided we’d just start driving down into France and see what happened. We stopped for dinner and then kept driving. I drove until 1:00 am and then Bruce drove until 2:30 am. We stopped at a rest stop, which are nothing like the rest stops in America. They are amazing, food, restaurants, shopping, etc. We tried to nap in the car, very hard to do with 3 dogs and all our luggage, but we did manage to get a few hours of sleep. We got back on the road at 6:00 am. We were close, very close. After stopping at the market for food for a few days we arrived in St. Antonin, home!

We stopped at our landlord’s house and picked up the key to our new house. Unloaded the car, stocked the fridge, walked the dogs and then took a 2 hour nap! We were exhausted from the non-stop crazy ride we were on. Our house is lovely and we know we are going to be so happy here in a village. It already feels like home. Later in the afternoon we took the dogs out and let them run, poor things have been stuck in the hotel room in Belgium with only walks and then they were in the car most of the day yesterday. They were great though.

It’s Sunday morning right now and we are going to head out to the open market (our village has an amazing one). We’ll start unpacking and getting organized too. Tomorrow we have to register the car, get our French plates, get a phone, and set up our tv and internet service. But, hopefully we can do it all here, as we have no desire to get in the car for a few days.

We still feel that buying a car in Belgium was cheaper than in France, but it was a bit of a challenge getting it here. We had to laugh because in America you can go to a dealership and within say 1 hour you have a car, with plates, insurance, registration, etc…and you can drive it home. If you want to live here you have to deal with the paperwork and confusion. I’m sure when we go to register the business it will be just as difficult, but again our motto is “no expectations”. We’ll go with the flow, take a deep breathe and it will get done.

Stay tuned.

Going with the flow

2010-10-21T23:52:00.000+02:00

Ghent, Belgium

The Plan, plan A was to fly to Brussels, Belgium to buy a used car. I had contacted 3 used car dealers via the internet and had appointments set up to look at 3 different cars. We would buy a used car and drive it down to France. Sounds easy, right?

We arrived Monday morning, all 5 of us. We left from Chicago and the flight was only 7.5 hours. Despite the projectile vomiting from the 8 year old across the isle from us, the flight was very smooth (thanks to our Ambien). The dogs did great, no problems at all. Of course in Chicago we didn't have the EU document for dogs filled out (I didn't even know of it) but the United ticket agents were super nice, friendly and helpful, I know you think I'm kidding, but it's true. They let us on the flight without these documents and said that we'd have to deal with it if the Belgiun authorities questioned us. But just like when we moved to France in 08, nobody questioned us, looked at the documents or anything. Dogs came rolling out in their crates and given to us. Whew.

We went to look at one car on Monday, from a really nice man named Geert, he actually has friends in St. Antonin where we are moving and we hit it off immediately. We know we'll see him again. The car was a Skoda estate (stationwagon). Tuesday we went to look at another car, a Hyundai mini-van. We want something that holds 5 people and also can hold our bikes and/or dogs if it's just the two of us. The cars were expensive, for used cars. One was a 2001 and the other a 2005. We were set to move forward with the Skoda and then Bruce went down to the bar to have an espresso. Bruce told the man working at the bar what we were going to buy the Skoda and the expression on his face said "don't do it man!" He said Skoda's are not great cars. He told us to check at the dealers (Citron, Peugeot) to see if they had anything, it would be much better than buying an older used car, they are French so anyone can work on them and they hold their value. So off we went. We went to the Peugeot dealership and saw a "directives" car. That's where employees drive a new car for 4-6 months and then they turn in and sell it. We saw a 207 Peugeot with 8,000 miles on it, it's a 2010 and 6 months old. 2 years still left on the warranty and nothing wrong with it, inside or out. The price was a bit more than the used cars, but when we thought about it, we knew it was the better choice. That was Tuesday evening at 7 pm. We went back on Wednesday and bought the car. We gave them a downpayment and started the bank transfer from our Credit Agricole account in France. But it will take 3 days for the transfer to go through and we can't take the car until the money is in the dealerships account, hopefully Friday.

Our new car, 2010Peugeot 207 break

Then there is the problem with plates and registration for the car. Well not a problem, but a situation. We were told you could get transfer plates in Belgium that comes with insurance for 2 weeks or so and then you can drive the car into France. But we find out it's not that easy and it's about 500 euros. You have to take paperwork down to something similar to the DMV and wait in line for an average of 4 hours, only to find that you don't have everything they require. And then you still have to go to the Prefecture in France and register the car. Oh what to do. We were thinking we would have to take all the paperwork from the dealer and drive to St. Antonin (8 hours) and register the car/get plates and then drive back up to Gent to pick up the car. But then we found out that France has changed the registration process, you no longer need to go to the Prefecture in your department, you can go to any Prefecture in France. Yippee....Lille, France is only 50 miles away. So this morning we were going to get all the paperwork and then drive down the Lille and register the car and get the plates. Then we'd be all ready and legal with the car. We were to meet Curt at the Peugeot dealership at 10:30. Just to be safe we called the Prefecture to find out when they would be closed for lunch, we always end up arriving a places between 12-2 pm only to find them closed for lunch. What we found out was that they close at 11:00 on Thursdays and are not open in the afternoons, they will open again on Friday at 9 am. Seriously? Really? Are you sure????? Damn. So the plan is to drive to Lille tomorrow and take care of things and come back up, hopefully have the funds deposited, pick up the car and head down to France. Now, that's the plan. But I think right now we are on Plan C, maybe D. We are already here 2 more days than we had thought, so who knows what might happen.

We have decided our new motto is "no expectations". So many things are out of our control. We are foreigners and are learning the process, so we just need to be flexible and not get all stressed out over little things like buying a car. So we decided since it was sunny and we had the whole day we'd take the dogs into Ghent for some sight-seeing. So that's what we did. We had lunch at soup, you got a huge bowl of soup, 2 rolls and an apple for 4 euros. We walked through the medieval docks down by the river, did some window shopping, stopped and had some coffee and just enjoyed the day. We had a great time, got to see this beautiful city (if you have never visited I highly recommend it). The dogs had fun, we had fun and insteading of stressing out we had a vacation in Ghent.

city dog "stella"

the goldens and a pug friend at the dog bar

Castle of the Counts (1180)

yummy...soup

Hopefully my next post will be telling you we left on Friday and we made it to St. Antonin in our new car and everything went smooth. Keep your fingers-crossed, send good vibes, but if we need to wait one more day, we will. We have our whole lives ahead of us...there's no hurry. Although if the money doesn't come tomorrow and won't come on a Saturday, we have decided to pack up the rental car and go to Amsterdam!

Family time before the move

2010-10-17T16:19:00.000+02:00

the colors were amazing

We are in Chicago right now. At the Hilton at O'Hare...waiting for our flight. We arrived last night and will spend today exercising the dogs as much as possible and organizing all of our stuff. We'll take the bags over first and then we'll take the dogs over at the last possible minute. We are flying from Chicago to Brussels, Belgium so we can buy a used car and then we'll drive down to our new home.

We came to Chicago via Michigan where my family is. I haven't been home in 2.5 years, since my Dad died. It wasn't a great trip back then. My Dad's funeral and a huge fight with my oldest sister made it a trip I'd like to forget. This time was different. Of course I stayed with my sister Anne (not the fighting sister), I always stay with her. She has a lovely Victorian house with a carriage house in the back. It's quiet and comfortable and I always sleep so good in the carriage house.

My mom (who is 82) and my oldest sister and my brother, his wife and their 14 year old son came over for dinner. There wasn't any tension, no fighting, just good food and family.

On Friday we went to the pumpkin patch/cider mill. We picked up 3 pumpkins that Bruce carved, some apples (for an apple crisp that I made that day) and we had some amazing fresh, warm doughnuts. Bruce actually ate 4 before we even left the parking lot.

my sister and niece (and me) at the pumpkin patch

On Saturday we went to my nephew's football game (he's 11). My niece is 8 and she cheers at the games. It wasn't hard to say goodbye to my Mom or brother or sister, because I haven't lived in Michigan in over 20 years and I know that I'll see them soon in France. But it was hard to say goodbye to my nephew Mathieu, we have a very special bond and he's very sensitive and cries when we leave. I know I'll see him in France, but it's always hard to say goodbye to him.

We keep pinching ourselves...is this really happening? Are we really moving to France? Somehow it doesn't feel real. We've done this before. Drove from LA to Chicago with the dogs, flew to France, lived there for a year. But we had to come home. This time it's not just for a year, we are embarking on our new life. I don't think it will hit us for a couple weeks when we start to settle in and realize that we don't have to go back to the U.S. our new life is in France.

4 days across America - again!

2010-10-14T04:55:00.000+02:00

This is our 2nd time driving across the U.S. October 08 we did it for the first time when we took our 1 year sabbatical in France. We only went to Chicago in 08, but this time we went all the way up to Michigan to see my family. We have either sold, given away or shipped everything we own. We have 3 dogs, 2 suitcases and 3 dog crates with us in the rental car. We are moving to France and couldn't be more excited.

trying to get out of los angeles

We had hoped to leave last Saturday around 10:00 am, but that didn't happen. We went to sell our car and had major problems because the dealership (VW) had the vin number on the title and registration wrong. 1 digit off. So, when someone looks up the vin it doesn't show anything, which means nobody will buy the car. So we had to run around like crazy and it still isn't taken care of. We left the car at VW and our good friend K is going to sell it for us when they correct the vin with the DMV.

So 10:00 became 3:30 pm. We finally got on the 10 freeway heading east and thought we were on our way, but we hit major traffic and it took us about 1.5 hours to get out of the city. We drove until 10:00 pm and ended up staying in Mesquite Nevada.

vegas drive-by

Sunday was a much better day. We hit the road early and drove to Carbondale, Colorado where our friend Chris lives. We spent Sunday and Monday with him. He lives in a cabin behind this lovely house in the country. Stunning scenery and peace and quiet. The dogs loved it. We went rock-climbing at Rifle on Monday and got worked! It was great to spend time with Chris who we haven't seen since our last drive across the country. Hopefully we'll get him to France this spring.

Chris' backyard

Stella hanging out at Rifle

Bruce doing a bit of climbing at Rifle

Tuesday we left Carbondale and thought it would be a breeze driving to Des Moines. But when we arrived in Vail it was snowing so hard we could barely see. We drove 30 mph until Denver. So 1.5 hours turned into 3.5 hours. Then major road work most of the way. Argh! We ended up staying in Lincoln, Nevada instead of Des Moines.

Nebraska was so boring and flat

Today was such a long day, 13 hours in the car. Major road construction (going 40 for miles and miles) most of Iowa and Illinois and rush hour traffic around Chicago made the 10 hour day turn into a 13 hour day. We finally arrived at my sisters house at 10:00 pm.

The dogs were amazing the whole trip. We have a huge van and they have their bed in the back and we can also lay in the back. So we'd take turns driving, 2 hours and then rest, 2 hours and then rest. It makes it much easier. We'll be here in Michigan visiting with my family until Saturday afternoon and then we'll head down to Chicago and fly out on Sunday for our new life in France.

More to come.

Our last camps at the studio

2010-09-11T05:02:00.000+02:00

Drawing the big pepper tree

Today we finished Camp #13 at Art-Works Studio, our business that we sold in May. We are Independent Contractors right now, helping the new owner, training new teachers for classes, etc... The studio had 13 camps over the summer, they are day camps and we do amazing projects with the kids. I think we have done about 150 camps over the past 10 years. They are a piece of cake, fun, easy and casual. We worked a few in June and then 1 the end of July after we returned from our first teen camp in France with our new business Raison d'Art. Then we took August off and came back for the last 2.

It's strange to think we will never do another summer art camp at Art-Works Studio. A bit bittersweet, but we had a good run and it's time to move on. We had a great group of kids the last 2 weeks. We had a girl named Emily in both camps. Emily started at the studio when she was just 6 and today she turned 14! We are very close with her and her family and it was great that our last 2 camps had her in them.

print by Emily

Abstract Tree

Miles

Next week we will be at the after-school classes, but we are slowly turning things over. We only have 4 more weeks until we leave for France. It will be good to see everyone coming back for Fall classes, kids we haven't seen since May. We are putting out an email this weekend to all our customers letting them know that we'll be moving in October. Many don't know that we are leaving, for good.

At first it was hard to let go of the studio, it was our baby for 10 years. But now it's done, it's not ours anymore and we feel really good with the new owner and what she's doing. She's psyched and excited for her new life as the owner and we are excited and psyched with our new life in France. A win win for all of us.

Getting ready for the movers

2010-09-05T23:39:00.000+02:00

5 Weeks. 35 Days until we leave Los Angeles. Let the countdown begin. We are starting to get ready for the movers, who come in 2 weeks. We are using Rainier Overseas Movers. We had California Relocation services come to the house to do a survey of the things we were taking. They work with both of the companies we looked at, so they both had the same information. We decided on Rainier because they were a bit (not much) cheaper and No Regrets for Me also used them when she moved to Brantome.

We are looking at what we have, how much it's worth and if we should pay for it to be shipped or could we buy a replacement in France. Things like the old couch won't go, we'll get another at Ikea. Things like my cookware and such will definitely be going. It's not cheap to ship your stuff and since we are paying for it ourselves, we have to smart about what we'll be taking. I'm not a hoarder and really have no sentimental ties to my "stuff", so getting rid of things is no big deal to me. There are a couple things, like these etchings my mom got in New Orleans about 50 years ago, an antique dresser and a few other things that I would never give away, but that's about it. I don't like clutter and believe in less in more.

Once the movers pack us up, we won't see our stuff for 75-90 days. Luckily the village house we are renting in St. Antonin will come furnished until our stuff comes. The hardest thing is that we will be without our bikes for 2-3 months. We'll have to run, rock climb, do yoga and join the "club du musculation" the local gym in Villefranche so we can stay fit.

We'll leave Los Angeles and head east to Michigan to see my family for a few days and then we'll drive down to Chicago. When we left on our sabbatical in 08 we drove to Chicago and left from there, because it's only 7.5 hours to Paris, 12 hours from Los Angeles. We have the dogs and 12 hours is a long time. 7.5 isn't too bad. They have done the trip before and they were fine. We are flying United again, since they took such good care of them last time. We have decided to fly to Brussels instead of Paris this time. We are going to spend 2 days there looking for a used car. The used cars in France are very expensive and they are not so in Belgium. We are looking for a good reliable car, a bit newer than Claude (our 1985 Peugeot station wagon we had last time we lived there). We are thinking of a Peugeot 305 estate (station wagon) or a Skoda estate. We had great luck with Claude and all the french mechanics know how to work on Peugeots. We want a wagon, so we can pack up the bikes or the dogs and still have a bit of room. Once we find a car, we'll drive down to St. Antonin. I have heard that the Brussels airport is so nice and easy, CDG in Paris is a nightmare!

Claude our 1985 305 estate

A new 307 estate

I'm also going to start throwing pottery again. I haven't thrown in almost 2 years. I couldn't find a place to throw when we were living in France last time and then when we came back to the states last October, we didn't move back into our house (my studio was in the garage) and I had no place for my kiln. I sold my wheel and just sold my kiln and slab roller. We'd like to find a small space to rent in the village where we can have our studios. I'll throw and Bruce will paint. We are also going to offer some art classes on Wednesday and Saturday for local kids during the school year. We'll focus on our art in the winter/spring and hopefully get it into some galleries/shops.

some of my pottery

For late spring/summer we'll focus on Raison d'Art our new business. We'll have women's retreats in May & September and Summer art camps for tweens/teens June-August. Our first trip this July was a huge success and we know that we can offer kids a very unique experience, something they will never forget. We'll take kids from all over the world, but the focus next year will be on the US and England.

Right now I'm a bit nervous but super excited. Our one year sabbatical was amazing and life-changing and we knew we wanted to go back for good, but when it's only 5 weeks away it's a bit scary. No turning back. The business has been sold, the movers are coming, the one-way tickets have been purchased...we are so ready for our new life!

Last few days in Mammoth

2010-09-02T04:07:00.000+02:00

We spent 2 weeks up here the first week of August, went home for a week and then came back up last Tuesday and stayed until Sunday. We woke up Sunday morning to snow on the ground and covering the car...burrr. We were so lucky to have 3 weeks in this magical place, it's been amazing. Our friends E and K and their daughter K came up with us last week and we relaxed, hiked, playing games, ate great food, drank great wine and hung out. It's been so much fun.

We took them on a beautiful hike at Rock Creek. It's about 6 miles round trip. Beautiful scenery, lake after lake after lake. We took an amazing picnic lunch and relaxed by one of the lakes for a bit before heading back. Perfect day.

Rock Creek

The day before we left we went to Rainbow Falls/Reds Meadow. We stopped to see the falls, which are stunning. We also saw Devils Postpile. Which was amazing.

Rainbow Falls

Devils Postpile Monument

We are back in LA now and back to work. We are teaching 2 more weeks of summer camps and then start fall classes on the 7th. We had an amazing month off, with wonderful memories of Mammoth.

The Watermelon Radish

2010-08-28T01:46:00.000+02:00

Do you know what a Watermelon Radish is? I didn't, until a month ago.

K holding a watermelon radish from the garden

Our best friends E and K have a daugther, an amazing daugher, she's 10 (almost 11). K has been taking art classes at the studio for 4 years. K is an unusual kid for 10, as she will try any food. She may not like it, but she'll try it. She's eaten things most kids would never eat. She talks about burratta like it's ice cream, most 10 year olds don't even know what burratta is. We got to talking one night at dinner and I told her that she should start a blog. A blog about food. A blog from a 10 year olds point of view. So the watermelon radish was born. I'm very proud of her, blogging isn't easy, especially if you are 10. But, she has so much food experience to share with others that she just has to write about it. Maybe she can get other kids to try new foods.

So check out the Watermelon Radish and comment on her posts (she'd loved that).

Back on the Rocks

2010-08-22T19:50:00.001+02:00

me bouldering in mammoth

When I met Bruce 15 years ago it was through rock climbing. I was a beginner and he was an instructor. He had been climbing for years when I met him. It was his passion, or should I say obsession. We climbed for years together in California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and on the island of Mallorica. For 7 years this was what we did, every weekend, all time. We mostly sport-climbed. Then I injured my arm, climbing of course. I had to take time off, which ended up being 8 years. I started doing other things like triathlons and then once I quit Bruce & I decided to try another sport - surfing. We surfed for a few years in California, Hawaii and then Costa Rica. It was fun, but super scary for me.

Then we move to cycling and that's been our passion for the last 5 years. But now that we have decided we'll be moving back to France and the village where we will be living (St. Antonin Noble Val) is surrounded by amazing limestone cliffs with superb climbing, we decided to start up again. There is also the Verdon Gorge in Provence, Fontainebleau just south of Paris for incredible bouldering and tons of place in Spain for sport climbing.

Last weekend when we were in Mammoth Bruce bought a new pair of climbing shoes and I rented a pair and we went out bouldering. Bouldering is where you climb without a rope. It's not free-soloing which is where you climb long routes without ropes (no thank you) it's short moves on a rock/boulder that's maybe 10 feet high at the most. Super fun. We were hooked, again. I had to laugh because when we climbed 8 years ago, Bruce was an amazing climber, very talented and devoted. I was the girlfriend, so I went where he wanted to climb as he was working on very hard routes. I never got to be a beginner, I ended up climbing or trying to climb routes that were really hard. But now we are both starting over, it's to my benefit that he's taken 7 years off.

Bruce climbing at the Happy Boulders just outside of Bishop

Yesterday we went into Rockreation, which is an inside climbing gym in Los Angeles. Bruce worked there for many years as an instructor and course setter. We haven't been in the gym in years but our good friend Blane who manages the place gave us passes to come in whenever we wanted. So yesterday we spent a few hours bouldering at the gym. Today I'm very sore. I bought a pair of climbing shoes too and a chalk bag and we are now ready to go! We are going back to Mammoth tomorrow for a week, so I'm sure we'll be back on the rock a few more times.

It's fun to be back climbing. So much of our past revolved around climbing and getting away from the chaos of the city. There is so much climbing where we are moving it would be a crime not to touch the rock and only look at it with amazement and awe.

Up in the Mountains

2010-08-10T21:44:00.001+02:00

The cabin

Loving the water

We are 2 very luck people. Bruce’s parents own a house in Mammoth Lakes California, up in the Sierras, 5.5 hours north of Los Angeles. We haven’t visited in 5 years, mostly because we were busy in the summer with our camps and the cabin is only open July – September. We used to take our vacation in the spring. But because we have the month of August off, we decided to come back up to visit. Bruce’s parents are going to be selling the cabin and with us moving back to France this is probably the last time we’ll be here.

Bruce has been coming up to Mammoth every summer since he was a baby. He feels so free here. When he was a kid he could play in the forest, climb on the rocks and just be a kid. The place is located above the town of Mammoth, actually on the backside of the mountain. It’s covered in snow most of the year, so you can only visit in the summer. But it’s the most amazing place. A 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom cabin in the wood. It’s on a ‘tract’ of 7 other cabins, on BLM land (bureau of Land Management). Bruce’s parents own the cabin, but not the land. They have had this cabin for over 20 years. This used to be Bruce’s favorite place until he visited France, now it’s his second favorite.

Horseshoe Lake

We have been up here since last Saturday (11 days). It’s magical up here. The air is clean, the skies are blue, it’s not super hot and pretty chilly in the evening. But you can see so many stars and it’s so quiet. We arrived, unpacked and had a glass of wine and some cheese & crackers. Then we took the dogs for a long hike through the woods and around Horseshoe Lake. Dashell jumped in the water the first chance he got. The last time he was up here he was 10 months old. We actually took him on a 5 day backpacking trip from Yosemite back to Mammoth. This time, he’ll just hang out at the cabin, swim in the lake and hike in the woods. Every morning we hike around the lake and the dogs swim.

We went bouldering (the first time in years) and had a great time. We took the dogs with us and by the end they were beat! We’ll be heading down to Bishop to boulder later today too. We met climbing and then took a break for a while, but I think we might be hooked again! We have also hiked some amazing trails and the views are stunning. Mostly we take the goldens, because little Stella can't hike a long time. She's happy hanging around the cabin.

Tired Stella

Tired Nellie

Tired Dashell

We have had amazing dinners up here in the cabin and some really good sine. There is no telephone, no television, just peace and quiet. We are staying until the end of the week and then will head back to Los Angeles for a week and then come back up around the 24^ththru the 29^th. Our best friends E&K will come up and stay with us for 4-5 nights, which will be so much fun.

If you are from around Southern California and have a chance to visit Mammoth Lakes in the summer I highly recommend it. Even if your not from around here, come and visit. It’s mostly a winter destination since the skiing is amazing, but since I’m not a winter girl the summer is perfect for me!

Change is good!

2010-07-28T06:06:00.000+02:00

Mr. Owl at Le Sivadal

Our amazing view from the terrace

The "gang" in Penne

When we came home from our year sabbatical in October 09 we knew we needed to get back to France as soon as possible. We've outgrown Los Angeles, it's too busy and too big, just not our style anymore. We want countryside, hardly any street lights, beautiful architecture...basically France. 10 years ago we said to each other "in ten years we'll move to France". I always keep goals - 6 months, 1 year, 3 year, 5 years. And each year I'd write down "we'll move to France". It was hard getting back to the studio and back to business. We love the kids but doing the same thing for 10 years was getting old. We wanted to take what we know and move it outside of the classroom/studio. Sometimes it's someone else looking in who opens your eyes and Kim did that for us. Raison d'Art was born last summer and when we came back to Los Angeles we started to market our "summer camp" for teens.

Last Monday we arrived home from our first trip to France with 9 teens. 18 days in the Tarn, 16 at the most amazing house in the country and 2 nights in Toulouse. It was wonderful and exceeded our expectations! We hope we changed some lives and/or opened some eyes. If you're interested in reading about the trip and learning about our new business check it out here.

After being home for a month or so one of our clients asked us if we were interested in selling the studio. Yes, we said. Yes, yes, yes! This client has sent her daughter to us for 4 years and believes in what we do and wants to expand on it. Something we never wanted to do. She's a very smart business woman and a good friend. It was a perfect match. We closed the deal in May and we are now Independent Contractors for her. Still doing some camps and helping her as much as we can with training new teachers, understanding the daily office duties, etc... We will work until the end of this week, take the month of August off (and spend it in Mammoth), come back in September and work through mid-October, but then after that we are moving back to France. Yes, you read that right, we are moving back. How long...hopefully for good.

We found an amazing house to rent in our favorite village St. Antonin Noble Val. During the year we were there (as most of you know) we lived in Les Costes, a 200 year old stone farmhouse in the middle of the countryside. Very little heat, very isolated, but amazing. This time we want to rent in a village for a bit. We think it will make the winters a bit easier, being around other people. We'll rent for a year and in the meantime look for an place to buy.

Next year we'll be offering (2) women's retreats in May, with yoga, cooking classes, wine tasting, visits to museums, villages, etc... and then (4) summer camps for kids (1) for kids 11/12 and the other (3) for kids 13-17. We'll rent the same house we rented this summer as it was so perfect for what we are doing. It's call Le Sivadal and it's just outside of Cordes.

This business idea has become a reality and we can't wait to get over to France to start working on it. We'll register as a french business so we can pay into the french system. We want to be legit. We are also thinking of offering some art classes for local kids on Wednesday and Saturday during the school year.

Bruce is all set to paint, paint and paint. I hope to get settled and get a wheel and a kiln and start throwing pottery again, as it's been almost 2 years since I've thrown. The dogs are super excited too. They had an amazing time during the year they lived there. Nellie has never been but she'll love it too.

So loads of amazing things are happening to us. We are excited, thrilled, a bit scared (because what if it doesn't work), but then so what, we'll figure something else out. Sure we could stay here and try to open another studio in another area, but we don't want to do that and it's so expensive here. What we pay 1 month in Los Angeles will cover us for 4-5 months in France. Isnt' that crazy? So, why not try and make this work. Life's too short.

I will be updating this blog, as I've had many requests to keep my personal blog going. As long as you are not bored with my everyday life, I'm happy to continue reporting, but keep checking our Raison d'Art blog (which also gives information about our programs) and pass it on to anyone you might think would be interested. We are almost done with our website and I'll post that when it's ready.

It's good to be back. I have missed my blogging, but I wasn't ready to announce the sale of the business until now and really didn't have much to talk about. But new exciting stuff is on the horizon, so stay tuned.

Happy couple in Toulouse

NEW BLOG and BUSINESS

2010-04-27T00:17:00.004+02:00

So...got a new blog and some exciting news. That's all I'm going to say. You will have to check out the new blog to get all the details. I won't be posting here anymore, so make sure you add the new blog to your favorites. I will say one thing...IT'S AMAZING AND EXCITING.

Raison d'Art

And then there were three!

2010-03-05T06:28:00.004+01:00

Nellie

No no....it's not a baby. Put that thought away, please.

Three means another dog. When you have two, what's three. We got an email from our dear friend Patty a few weeks ago, she runs a non-profit called Northstar Foundation. They raise and place golden retrievers with children who have autism, asperger's syndrome, muscular dystrophy, loss of a loved one, illness, etc.... It's an amazing foundation and we have volunteered as "puppy raisers" a few times. Our golden Dashell is from Northstar and we also raised Bingo who went to a little boy here in Los Angeles. It's very rewarding. Patty told us she had a 4 month old golden named Nellie. Nellie was not going to go to a family, she will be a PR dog for the foundation here in Los Angeles and will also be bred since her lineage and temperament are excellent. Patty was raising a few other pups for some families and needed a home to raise Nellie. Three pups was a bit too much for her to handle and since she is in Connecticut and most of her placements are in Los Angeles she wanted her out here.

She asked if we would be interested in co-owning Nellie. She'd be raised by us, live with us, but would be inseminated here in Los Angeles and then go back to Connecticut to have and whelp her pups (for 3 months). It was a very easy decision to help raise her, but we didn't think we'd be interest in co-owning her. We have 2 dogs already and a third is just too much. Patty took us up on our offer to help raise her for 3 months and 2 weeks ago Patty flew her out here and she came home with us.

All I can say is "it was love at first sight". She's the most calm, relaxed, sweet pup I have ever been around. When Dashell was her age he was crazy. He's 5 1/2 and he's still a bit of a punk. But Nellie is a dream puppy. She's just amazing, does everything she is told, lays at my feet, sleeps next to my bed, follows me to every room and has already learned sit, down, stay and we are working on "turn around". Right now she's still here for only 4 months. Did I say 4, I meant 3. See, already I'm putting on another month. If she was difficult it would be easy to say only 3 months. But she's so wonderful I could see us keeping her (did I just type that?). Dashell is her Uncle, his sister Rosie is her Mom. We'll see what happens in a few months. Right now she's at the studio with us everyday and all the kids love her and she's having fun with her Uncle and I just love having her around. Stella on the other hand has her skirt in a bit of a bundle, she's a female and the alpha...so having another girl around makes her a bit pissed. She's been giving her the stink eye since she arrived, but she's coming around.

I'll keep you posted. She might stay or she might leave. We'll see.

Trois Mois

2010-01-02T19:11:00.004+01:00

It's been 3 months since we left our lovely home and life in the Aveyron. Every day we miss it. Every day we talk about coming back. It's in our blood now, in our future. I also miss blogging, but figured that you wouldn't be interested in hearing about my life back in Los Angeles on a regular basis. But figured every once in a while I'm going to update you on what's going on with our life and plans.

The first month back was very difficult, just adjusting to the noise and traffic and fast paced lifestyle here in Los Angeles. We were used to living in a house where there were probably 5 cars that went by in a day, and of course Laurent's tractor (down and back up to the farm). The only horns we heard honking were either from Nadine & Bernard coming in from Toulouse for a weekend stay at their home Lauérié or Grandma (Laurent & Nadine's mother) as she went to the boulangerie (toot toot). It always made us smile.

I don't smile when I hear the horns here in Los Angeles. They don't sound like (toot toot), they sound loud, long, aggressive.

The one thing that has been very easy is returning to the studio. It's like we never left. Slipping back into teaching art and spending time with the kids was a breeze. We were lucky to have our business to come back to, to have a job, to have amazing customers who stuck with us for the year we were gone.

Art-Works Studio

We couldn't move back into our house because it is currently being rented out. Sure, we could have told the tenants they were out, but they are really nice people, take great care of the house, so why disrupt their lives. We moved into the Archstone Apartments, in Playa del Rey.

They call it "resort living" and it's great. 2 bedroom/2 bathroom, hardwood floors, fitness center, pool, dog run (that's not just a run, it's about the size of a football field all grass and fenced in) which is perfect for the kids, 5 minute walk to the beach and safe. We moved into another Archstone 2 months before we left for France because our house rented early and we liked it there, so figured we'd move back to another one. It's great...but it's not France!

We sold Claude, our lovely 1985 Peugeot, 2 days before we left France. We were both really sad to see him go. That car took us all over France and even to Belgium. He was a great car. We had to buy a car when we arrived home. We wanted something small and test drove many cars, but they all seemed a bit cheap. We then decided to test drive a VW GTI (turbo) and Bruce fell in love with hit. We decided to go for it. Here's our new car. It's great. Small, but roomy and super fast.

zoom-zoom

What we had hope to do in France is open a summer camp for kids from the states. Introduce them to rural france, the lifestyle, the history, the people, etc.... They would stay with us (in our home) and in the morning we'd do art, then an hour of french and then activities in the afternoon (biking, rockclimbing, kayaking, zip lining, hiking, swimming). We'd shop together at the open market, cook together and visit villages, pre-historic caves, etc... We are still moving forward with that idea. This summer we are taking 12 kids to the Aveyron to spend 17 days in rural france. We'll be staying at our friends property Les Aleis. We'll all fly in together and eat, create and play together. It's going to be amazing and life changing. We'll spend 15 days in the Aveyron and then 2 days in Toulouse before heading home. This summer 1 group, next summer maybe 2-3 groups. We are excited to be going back and even more excited to be bringing kids over to see the amazing Aveyron.

We still try and speak french to each other a few times a week so that we don't loose what we gain in the year living there. I listen to french music when I run and still read my children's books. I also write to our friends (emails) who don't speak English, although it takes me forever!

Life is unpredictable and you have to adjust to things that come your way. If Plan A doesn't work, move to Plan B, if B falls through, move to Plan C. Sometimes the timing isn't right. Our plan to stay didn't workout, but that's not stopping us from moving forward to get us back there. We are working on it and we know it will happen. Our goals are written down and we have a plan.

Stay tuned.

Our year in France

2009-10-01T16:15:00.004+02:00

Well, it's been 1 year to the date since we moved here to rural France. The beautiful Aveyron region, our little house "Les Costes" in the woods. It has been an amazing journey and we are changed people. We would love to stay here in France and start a new life, but timing just isn't right. The economy, the exchange rate and most important our business back home, Art-Works Studio. It needs us. It misses us. And it's time to go back and take care of business and get back to teaching kids art. We are refreshed and our creative juices are flowing. I'm not saying it was an easy decision. In fact I think it's the hardest decision we have ever made. We love it here. Love the people, the food, our life, the countryside, etc... But we have been very lucky to be able to take a 1 year sabbatical and move to a foreign country. We are packing up right now, getting our year into 2 suitcases. We have 2 bike cases, 2 dogs crates, maybe 1 cat crate and 2 suitcases, oh and 2 carry-ons. Oh my.

Here is a highlight of our year here in SW France.

1. we arrive exactly 1 year ago today

2. our house is called "Les Costes" but the people here in the area called it "the house of fear"

3. we road our bikes about 6700 km (which is about 4,163 miles) this past year

4. our first 30 days here were lovely, then on the 31 of october it snowed.

5. most of november it rained

6. december we were thinking - "what have we gotten ourselves into"...we were freezing

7. early december our 1st cat Maillot adopted us

8. we had the coldest winter here in 12 years

9. road our bikes in 32 degree weather

10. met so many people who are now great friends.

11. some of our friends here have never met an American before

12. got 3 chickens (fanny, rhoda and lefty) had them for 8 months and then, well....

13. in the winter i think i mopped the floor ever day, dirt, wet, dogs = mopping

14. visited so many places: Toulouse, Bordeaux, Albi, Paris, Belgium, Provence, Montpelier, Beziers and countless villages that were all breathtaking

15. saw (6) stages of the tour de france LIVE

16. climbed (3) major mountains here (cols) the tourmalet, col d'aspin and Mt Ventoux!

17. met "no regrets for me", who I can now call a great friend and a wonderful lady.

18. my family came to visit in March

19. our friends Lisa & Steve came to visit in April

20. took french lessons 2x a week, 3 hours each class, no english! loved it.

21. drank many many bottles of amazing vin rouge.

22. July our 2nd cat appeared...Mr. Fancy Pants

23. changed as a person. So much for the better.

24. had one of the best years of my life!

We'll be back in France, we both know it. It's where we belong. But right now it's back to Los Angeles and to the studio. We are looking forward to seeing everyone. I'm probably not going to update the blog anymore, not until there is something "french" to report. So all I can say is thanks to all of you who have followed "our juicy life". I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I had writing it.

Indian food, Fireworks & Ruins

2009-09-06T20:30:00.008+02:00

Last night we had a great "welcome back to france" night. S&S, our lovely friends who watch the dogs when we are away, invited us over to their home for Indian. S&S have a catering business here in France, called Spiced Cuisine. S makes the most unbelievable curry! There were 10 of us and dinner was amazing.

After dinner we went to a pyro-lumino-symphony on the roc del thaluc (or Château Inférieur) in Peyrusse-le-roc a small village not far from us. The fireworks/light/music show was on the Château Inférieur. The Château Inférieur is a ruined castle. Peyrusse-le-Roc was known during Roman times for the richness of its silver, lead and antimony mines. The fortress here was besieged in 761. It was taken by the English in 1163 and later occupied by Simon de Montfort. The town began to lose its importance from the end of the 16th century. In 1668, the castle was already in ruins. All that remains are two towers; the northern one serving as a watch tower is described by the Ministry of Culture as the finest example in the Rouergue.

we took this back in November when we biked to Peyrusse-le-roc

we were sitting so close to the fireworks....that would never happen in the states

It was an amazing night. So many people were in the village and we sat on the side of the hill right in front of the ruin. Music, lights, fireworks and an ancient ruin. It was a great night.

Where in the world

2009-08-18T01:26:00.009+02:00

I have basically forgot about my blog. Seems kind of sad but such is life. July was the busiest month ever. We went to the Pyrenees to watch the tour de france, came home for a few days and then left again for Provence, came back for 1 week with friends and they left on the 1st of August and we left on the 2nd of August...left for where you ask...keep reading.

Last time I updated we were staying in St. Antonin and our friends village house. After that we drove over to Provence to ride Mt. Ventoux, see another stage of the Tour de France (up Ventoux) and meet up with our best friends K, E and K. Provence was lovely but so touristy. Wouldn't want to live over there. Bruce and I arrived 2 days earlier than our friends and road Mt. Ventoux. The giant of Provence. Hard hard climb. There are 3 different routes up Ventoux, we took the south route from Bédoin. 21.8 km. This is the most famous and difficult ascent (and the one the tour will take). The road to the summit has an average gradient of 7.43%. The first 5km is pretty easy at 4% but the 16 remaining kilometres have an average gradient of 8.9%. We parked about 30 minutes away from the base of Ventoux so we could do a nice warm-up before tackling the climb. When we hit Bédoin it was busy but when we hit the start to Ventoux it was nuts! We heard there were 400,000 people on the mountain and I would say there were over 1,000 people riding their bikes to the summit, or atleast trying. It was very hard, the hardest climb yet, but I didn't stop or walk my bike (many people were doing that). The view from the summit was amazing and the ride down a bit sketchy as it is steep and there were many people, riders and cars.

it all starts here.

Ventoux...get it?

400,000 fans on the mountain

heading towards the summit

the summit

holy shit...

we did it!

The day we road Ventoux our friends arrived and we were so happy. We hadn't seen them in 10 months. We spoke every week, sometimes twice a week, but seeing them in person was great. We stayed just outside of Gordes in Provence. We stayed in a lovely B&B calls Le Mas des Etoiles and had 4 days in Provence.

Then we headed back to Les Costes for another week of relaxing and hanging with our friends. It was wonderful.

Bruce is his new shirt, he wore it out of the store

at an amazing restaurant "un jour charlotte" in Gordes

Bruce and E

E&K

Now I'm in Los Angeles. Seriously, Los Angeles. It was a fast decision, but we had such a huge demand for our summer camps that we decided to add 4 afternoon camps that we'd run. We needed to come back and try and figure out how we can stay in france...forever. We were very lucky because we are house-sitting for 3 of our friends. Last week we took care of this lovely boy, Marley. The most amazing dog!

Marley

This week we are watching an adorable king charles spanial named Malomar and next week we are staying at our friends house at the ocean and taking care of their 2 dogs. It's perfect, although a bit hard living out of a suitcase for a month. Our camps have been wonderful, great kids and good to see everyone. But we have realized, bascially 30 minutes after we arrived at LAX, that we don't want to come back in October/November, we want to stay in france, make it work and start a new life. So, that's what we are doing here...trying to work it out. We'll be back in france on the 29th, hopefully with a plan. We miss the dogs and the cats and our life in France, but it has been great seeing our friends here in Los Angeles.

I'm not going to continue to update very regularly, because well, just don't have much to talk about and share. Pretty hum drum life. But, when I know of our plan I will definitely update and then maybe start a new blog to go with our new life.

4 days in St. Antonin - village life!

2009-07-23T10:24:00.006+02:00

me in front of Maison Bleu in October 2008

Our good friends Bonnie & Bruce have a house in St. Antonin Noble Val. Now, we met B&B only 1 month before we left for France, but when we met it was very strange, not strange in a bad way, but strange in a good way. There were/are so many similarities between us (too many to get into) and the instant we met them we knew we’d be great friends. The strangest thing is the fact that we had visited their village in 2007 when we first came to this region and fell in love with it. It quickly became our favorite village. Bruce even took a picture of their neighbor’s house and then painted it. When we met B&B and found out they lived in St. Ant we were thrilled and shocked, not many Americans have houses here in St. Antonin (maybe 2 others), we were especially thrilled when they told us they’d be coming over for the month of July!

We came to see then once they arrived and had an amazing lunch on the terrace. It was so great to see them again and we picked up where we left off in September, not missing a beat. Then they asked us if we were interested in staying in their house for 4 days, we jumped at the chance. First, because Maison Bleu is lovely (8 years of hard work, creating this beautiful home, it was a ruin when they purchased it) and second because we have been living in the country (rural france) for 10 months and we thought it would be cool to get a taste of village life. So here we are….right now…at Maison Bleu. I’m outside on the deck and Bruce is doing the dishes (something he does every time I good…love that man). It’s warm, we just finished dinner of salmon, salad and green beans, the music is going, we just had a visit from the neighbor (the one that owns the house that Bruce painted…he gave him the painting too), earlier we road our bikes, went to the café for a Pastis and had a great village day. We arrived on Saturday afternoon and we’ll leave on Wednesday morning for Provence for 4 days (my next post). Maison Bleu is also available to rent if you are coming to france for a holiday, if it's just 1-2 people I highly recommend it.

It's now Thursday and I'm in Provence, but finishing up this post. So, on Sunday, B&B and their family (son, daughter, her husband and their daughter) wanted to come to St. Ant to the Sunday market (a tradition) and also their daughter had not been to Maison Bleu in 5 years, so she wanted to see it finished. So, they came to the house and fixed us an amazing lunch. We sat outside for 5 hours and ate amazing food, laughed and laughed and drank some really good rosé. We had a great day with some amazing people who are now super friends!

Tuesday we went canoeing with B&B and the family. We all met in St. Antonin and canoed down the Aveyron river. We packed a picnic lunch and stopped along the river for a nice break. It took us about 4 hours and it was beautiful. Bruce and I rented individual canoes and had a blast. I'm waiting for B to send over pictures of the canoeing and will post them when I et them.

So what do I like about village life. First, it’s waking up and walking 2 minutes to the boulangerie for fresh croissants, second it’s not having to get in your car every time you need something, third it’s seeing people you know and stopping to chat, fourth it’s walking 3 minutes to the café for a coffee, coka lite or pastis. Plus they have great neighbors; they are quiet, respectful and very nice. Now, would I want to live in a village full-time? I think no. Maybe just outside the village. I really like having a big yard and space and so do the dogs. But it’s great to try it out and actually we are having a great time. Bruce said the idea thing would be to have a house in the country and a little place in a village…sounds good to me.

Bonnie left these in the house for us

Regis (their neighbor) who came for drinks

over the winter Bruce painted a picture of this house

and gave it to Regis

view from the terrace

Back of Maison Bleu

limestone cliffs

another view of Maison Bleu

Tour de France 2009 - stages 8 & 9

2009-07-14T09:40:00.012+02:00

t-shirts, hats, and stuff for friends & family

On Saturday we decided to drive into Saint-Girons to see the finish of stage 8. It was about 1 hour from Luchon and a lovely drive through valleys and up and down mountains. Saint-Girons population is about 8,000, but today there were probably double that. It was crazy. We decided we’d walk to the finish and see them cross the line. We arrived around noon and the guys were scheduled to come in around 4:45 or so. Luckily at the finish there was a big marché and many vendors, so we picked up some bread, cheese, sausisse, fruit and water and headed over to a shady spot near the river. After a lovely picnic we went to secure our spot near the finish. Then we waited…and waited…there was a big screen near us so at least we could watch the race but other than that you just wait. It was so hot, not a cloud in the sky, we baked! Great finish and a great day, but we have decided no more stage finishes for us. Too crazy, too many people and too hot.

the yellow jersey coming in

fresh sausisse, nothing better

the winner of the stage, before he made his move

Yesterday was an epic stage, stage 9. From Saint-Gaudens to Tarbes and 2 major climbs. The Col Tourmalet (which we road on Friday) and the Col d’Aspin. Since we had already climbed the Tourmalet we decided to climb to the summit of the Aspin and watch the guys go by on this major mountain. It was not as hard or as long as the Tourmalet, 14km instead of 18km and average grade of 7.2 instead of 7.4, but it was still hard (still a couple of 10% grade sections). We made it to the top and got a sandwich and soda (to go) and decided to descend about 1.5 km since the top was nuts! We got an amazing spot right on the side of the road with a view that was nothing short of amazing. We could also see 3 different sections of the winding road below so we had a great view of the guys coming up the mountain. This was by far our favorite stage, the location and the excitement and climbing up to the top and descending on our bikes (sure beats walking or sitting in a traffic jam for hours). We road back to where our car was parked and made it back to the hotel to see the final 15km of the stage. Great day.

here i come

made it to the top

ouch is right

crazy spanish fans

we road up from that tiny village down there

here come the leaders

there is Tom Boonen

We had a lovely time in Luchon and the weather although cold the first day we arrived turned beautiful for the remaining days. We would love to return (maybe in September) so we can do some more long mountain rides and enjoy the Pyrenees without the craziness of the tour.

I’m typed this on Monday, in the car on our way to the Toulouse airport to drop-off our rental car and pick-up “Claude” who has been resting for a few days. Then back to the house and then this afternoon we’ll pick up the dogs from S&S…we sure missed them!

We’ll be over in Provence from the 22-26^th and we’ll climb Mt. Ventoux and then watch the stage on the mountain. The crowds in the Pyrenees were crazy but Ventoux will be insane!

Stay tuned.

Tour de France 2009 - The Tourmalet

2009-07-10T21:34:00.009+02:00

c'est vrai!

We arrived yesterday in Luchon and it was cold. Not freezing but not hot and sunny. It's in the Pyrenees and deep in a valley. More like Boulder than France. We checked into the hotel - which is lovely, Hotel Majestic and went out to dinner.

Today was a big day for us, we road the Col Tourmalet. The highest road in the Pyrenees...the hardest mountain we have ever done. We drove over to Bagnéres de Bigorre (about 30 minutes before the start of the climb) so we could start there and get a bit of a warm-up before we hit the mountain. The total ride was 55 km and it took me 3 hours and 18 minutes (up and down) and it took Bruce 3 hours and 5 seconds. It was hard and never stopped. Just up and up and up. From Luz-Saint-Sauveur (which is 30 km from where we started) it's 19km long, climbing 1404m at an average of 7.4 % with a maximum of 10.2% at the summit.

me warming-up before the climb

still trying to warm-up

It was amazing and hard and rewarding and beautiful. I would love to do it again actually.

We wore short sleeved jerseys on the way up and hats, gloves, jackets and arm warmers on the way down. The tour de france will ride this col on Sunday as part of stage 9 and it was already filled with caravans and tons of people waiting for the race.

warm-up over...time to start the climb up

the climb took us up and up and up

how many more km?

did we just climb up from down there?

getting into a rhythm

Bruce too

It took me over 2.5 hours to get up and a bit over 30 minutes to get down. We changed in the car and drove to a café to watch the final 22km on the big screen. Amazing day, amazing finish. Tomorrow the stage finishes in Saint-Girons and we'll be there.

we made it to the summit

the last 2 km kicked my butt

bruce got here 18 minutes before me

the last 2km!

just a beautiful church on the way home

More pictures and updates to come.

Right now we are going to give each other leg rubs before we go to bed.

Tour de France - Stage 5

2009-07-09T19:02:00.007+02:00

Riding along the Canal du Midi towards Cap D'Agde

Stage 5 today - leaving from Cap D'Agde and ending in Perpignan. We decided to ride our bikes to the start, about 35 km from our hotel in Béziers. It was a great ride in along the Canal Midi, until we heat Cap D'Agde which was crazy. We watched the caravan go by, had a coffee and then decided to ride out and see them go by. Once they did we jumped back on the bikes and headed back to the hotel to watch the finish on television.

there they go...

Canal du Midi

so psyched to be here

After a little nap and a shower we headed out for dinner. On the way we stopped at a little wine bar that we visited back in February. It's very nice and they have some excellent wines to taste. I had a Roussillon 2005 and a Corbières - 2005 and Bruce had a Vin de Pays d'Oc and a 2005 Santenay. Both of us loved the Roussillon! We then went over to a little bisto near the church. Perfect place for dinner, we sat outside, facing the lovely church. Perfect day.

church in Béziers

I'm pretty psyched to be here too

View from the terrace next to the church

Our wine & entrées

We leave in the morning for Toulouse to pick up our rental car. Yes, rental car. Claude our 1985 Peugeot stationwagon would have a really hard time making it up the mountains in the pyrenees. Then we'll head to Luchon where we'll stay for the next 4 days. We won't see the tour live again until Saturday, but those 2 days will be excellent! We'll spend Friday riding some of the famous cols and Saturday doing long ride and then we'll see the finish in Saint-Girons.

Stay tuned.

Tour de France 2009 - Stage 4

2009-07-08T15:16:00.010+02:00

part of the "Caravan"

The moment we have been waiting for, the Tour de France. And instead of watching it (3) times on television is one day, (seriously we'd wake up early to watch it live, miss the finish because we would have to leave for the studio, so we'd come home in the afternoon and watch it again and then we'd watch the highlight show in the evening), we get to see it LIVE.

This week we will be in Béziers for 3 nights and then over in Luchon, which is in the Pyrenees for 4 days. We'll watch stage 4, 5, 8 and 9. Then we'll go home for a few days and head back out on the 19th for Provence, we'll climb Mt. Ventoux and see stage 20, which should be amazing.

Stage 4 is the team time trial. It started and ended in Montpellier. Béziers is about 50 km from Montpellier, so we drove the car about 20 km and decided to bike in. We couldn't decide if we should see the start or the finish, figured the finish would be good (they started and finished in different locations). We road the bike path next to the course all the way until we ended up on the course. The Astana team was out warming up and passed us. We road the final 2 km of the course to the finish. Pretty cool.

Astana out on a warmup ride

There's Lance

When we arrived at the finish, about 3 hours before the first team started, so we picked our spot and waited. Right when we arrived we met Bill and Liam. Liam is 8 years old and he met Lance Armstrong on a climb in the alps a few days before the start of the tour. Check it out here Liam and Lance. Liam is an amazing kid and a super cyclist and athlete. He and I hung out together the whole race, we talked about loads of stuff, but mostly cycling and he taught me quite a bit about the tour, he knows everything about it! He and his Dad Bill are here on a father/son vacation to follow the tour. Bill is keeping a blog about the adventure, you can follow them to here, father and son tour

They'll be heading over to the Pyrenees when we do, hopefully we can meet up again, because I would love to ride with Liam.

Watch for Liam in the tour someday!

funny "gift" from the caravan

just hanging out and waiting

chatting with Liam

OK back to the tour. Before the race starts the "caravan" comes through, it's just a big parade. All the sponsors have cars, floats etc...and they throw out goodies - candy, hats t-shirts, key chains, umbrella hats, etc...it's pretty funny. About an hour after the caravan the race started. The first team starts and then 7 minutes after that the next team goes, 20 team in all. The TTT (team time trial) was amazing, it's great to see the whole team riding together and being at the finish was super cool. Astana ended in first, Saxo bank 2nd and Columbia/highroad 3rd. Lance almost got the yellow jersey (maillot jaune), but right now he's in 2nd. It was a hot day but super fun. We road back to the car, on the route again and headed back to Béziers for dinner.

When we were here in February we saw a little Mexican restaurant called O-Mexicain, but it was closed for the slow season. They were open and since we haven't had Mexican since September we had to go there for dinner. It was amazing. We had chicken fajitas and flour tortillas. Excellent, not heavy or full of lard, just really good. The owners were really nice and we are thinking of going back again before we leave. If you are ever in Béziers you must check it out, you won't be disappointed.

Stage 5 tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Paris Drawings

2009-06-26T16:55:00.007+02:00

Everywhere we go Bruce brings one of his moleskine sketch books. He bought a new one just for the trip to Paris. Sometimes I just sit and watch him draw, something I can't do, he always makes it look so easy. Here are some of his drawings from our trip, enjoy.

from the Fontain de Medici in the Luxembourg Gardens

statue in the Rodin musée

Paris - day 4, 5 and 6

2009-06-26T09:34:00.008+02:00

Notre Dame

Sorry it's taken me so long to post this, I have no excuse.

Our time was flying by in Paris a city we both just love. Today my sister, her husband, my niece (my brothers daughter) and 10 or so university students of my sisters (from Kendall School of Design) were coming into Paris. It was the reason for going up there. They had been in Munich, Berlin and Vienna, now spending 3 days in Paris. They were flying in and then taking a bus into the city, so we decided to head over to their hotel and meet them when they arrived. They were all a bit tired from being up at 4:00 to catch a plane, so we decided to let them un-pack, relax and get settled, so we headed over to the Jacquemart-André Musee for a while. It was beautiful. We headed back over to their hotel at 1:30 and went over to get some ice cream at Berthillon's on île saint-louis, it's supposed to be the BEST and well I don't know because I'm not an ice cream nut, but it was really good. My sister, brother-in-law and niece were with us and we walked over to Notre Dame and around the 5th and 6th. Then my sister and brother-in-law split off from us and my job was to take my 17 year old niece shopping. We weren't finding anything good in the 5th or 6th for her, so we hopped on the metro and headed back over to the Lafayette Galleries. Bruce decided to stay in the 5th and do some drawing at the Luxembourg Gardens. We were to meet back at the hotel around 7pm. My niece and I were lucky at the galleries, she got an adorable jacket and a dress and I got a cute dress too (not that I needed it but what the hell). The afternoon was slipping away so I got her back to the hotel and had to jump back on the metro to head back over to our hotel as we were meeting S&N back at Les Funambules for an aperitif at 7:30 and then my sister and "the gang" were meeting us there for dinner. I was rush and hungry and tired when I got back to the hotel, but to my surprise Bruce wasn't there yet. He came in around 7:15, happy and relaxed from a day hanging in the gardens drawing.

me and my sister Anne

My niece Maggie

We then headed over to the restaurant, had drinks with our new friends and dinner with my sis. Super fun night!

The gang at dinner

my man in his favorite city

On Thursday we let my sister and the gang do their own thing, we went back to the Luxembourg Gardens (which could be one of my favorite places in paris) and road bikes around the 5th and 6th, a really nice relaxing afternoon. We went to Pierre Hermé an amazing dessert shop with the most incredible macaroons. We got some for us and some for the S&S who take care of the dogs. We met up with my sister in the afternoon and then had dinner with my brother-in-laws relatives (his mom is originally from Nice and all her relatives are in France), great fun, great wine and great food. Another amazing day in Paris.

The Luxembourg Gardens

Friday, day 6, our last day! We met my sister for coffee over in the 4th and said our goodbyes. Our train left at 2:00pm and we had to be back to the hotel at noon to check out. We had the most amazing time in paris and it was wonderful to share it with my sister. She lives too far away and we don't see her enough.

We stayed at a lovely hotel while we were there called The Grand Hotel Francias in the 11th. I mentioned it before but this is a great hotel and the staff were so friendly and nice and accommodating. The rooms are all re-done, we stayed on the ground floor in room #2 and it was beautiful, clean, spacious and the bathroom/shower....amazing! I highly recommend this hotel if you are going to Paris, you won't be disappointed.

Our trip was amazing and we really just roamed around the city, we didn't do any of the touristy things, but we've been to Paris before and saw most of the big sights. This time it was just riding around on bikes or walking forever and experiencing the city for what it is...beautiful!

Paris - day 3

2009-06-20T16:04:00.006+02:00

Tuesday – Day 3

We had enough of the metro yesterday so today we decided to try out the velib, which are the free bikes all over paris. It’s pretty cool. There are stations all over the city, notes on maps and all you do is take a bike from one velib station and return it at another. You do have to subscribe first, but that only takes 5 minutes or so. We did the short-term subscription, we had a ticket with a number on it and all you do it key in the number and choose to take a bike and your set. The rates are 1 euro per day and if you keep the bike for under 30 minutes you don’t pay anything else. If you keep in longer than ½ hour it’s something like 1 euro an hour. But what we would do is ride towards our destination and right before the ½ hour was up, we’d ditch the bike and rent another. I don’t recommend it to everyone though, you really have to be a confident cyclist because it’s pretty crazy on the roads. The first day we saw 3 accidents, not with cyclists, but with scooters/mopeds and cars. There are many streets which are highlighted green on maps and these have bike lanes, which are much better.

We started out renting some bikes and riding around the 7th. We were going to go into the Rodin but we got lost on the bikes (something very easy to do) so it took us longer to get over there than we had planned. So we ditched the bikes and walked around the 7th for a bit. I had lunch plans in the 4th, I was meeting Leesa, Barbara and Dawn! So excited to meet some fellow bloggers. Leesa picked her favorite restaurant in the Marias so I left Bruce at the Rodin and hopped the metro over to meet them. We had a great lunch at a super cute place called “le loir dans la theiere. 2 ½ hours went by so fast but I had a lovely time with the girls. They are all wonderful, friendly, warm and super cool.

just cruising around

one of the velib stations

Bruce and I had planned to meet in front of the Rodin at 4:30, but I didn’t leave lunch until 4:30, so I was a bit late, he didn’t mind. I found him at the bistro on the corner, at the bar, drinking a pastis. He had a great day at the Rodin, he took his sketchbook and spent the entire time sitting in front of amazing sculptures.

Rodin sculpture

Pastis

We had dinner plans with Sebastian, his parents live near us in the Aveyron. They retired down here many years ago and we met Sebastain over Christmas. He and JP live in the 11th and we met him at his flat for dinner. Lovely lovely night, a great bottle of Burgundy, excellent meal and delicious dessert. We’ll be seeing him next week when he comes down to the Aveyron.

Another long day, but so much fun. Not sure I could live here full-time, I’d be exhausted, but part-time, oh yes!!!

Paris - day 2

2009-06-16T18:59:00.006+02:00

Monday. We woke up around 5am to a downpour outside, went back to sleep until 7:30 and it was still raining. Oh well, it's just water, not a problem. We left the hotel and bought an umbrella then decided to take the metro to our first destination, which was the Pompidou to see the Kandinsky exhibit. We arrived a bit early so sat under an awning at a cafe and had a coffee. Then we walked over to the museum...the line was HUGE and we don't do lines and huge crowds (i know, what are we doing in Paris in June then), so we decided to just shop around the Marais. It wasn't raining very hard anymore and we had a great time. Then we went over to Place de Vosges and looked in some of the many galleries. We cruised around that area a bit more and then took the metro back to the hotel for a little break. Then we went back out around 5pm and decided to go to one of the biggest shopping stores in France "Les Galeries Lafayette, in the 8th. OMG is all I can say, 6 levels of shopping and each designer has it's own little shop in the big shop, a bit overwhelming but amazing. We spent about 1 1/2 hours there and then decided to head out to dinner and come back when we had more time.

Dinner was over in the 7th at a restaurant we went to 8 years ago when we were here. It's on Rue Cler a lovely street and it was excellent. Nothing fancy, but good food, good service and great wine. We then decided to walk home, which was quite a ways away but what the hell. We went over to the 6th and then over to îsle de la Cité and then back into the 4th where we stopped for a glass of wine (because it started to rain really hard around 11:00 pm) and then to the 11th to our hotel - Grand Hotel Francais (we did jump on the metro in the 4th to get us home because it was raining so hard. So we visited the 11th, 4th, 3rd, 2nd, 8th, 1st, 2nd, 7th, 6th and the isle de la Cité all 1 day. The metro is amazing, so convenient and so easy. We road it quite a bit today when it was raining.

We had a lovely day today and didn't do anything touristy, which is so us. We have been here before and seen most museums and attractions so this week is just finding places that are cool and different. Here are some shots from the day.

place de vosges

notre dame

yummy!

The first 4 hours in Paris

2009-06-14T23:07:00.003+02:00

Our train left Rodez at 11:45 this morning. We dropped the dogs off with S&S at 10:00 am. We feel so comfortable leaving them with S&S, no worries. I also had a chance to see Fanny (my hen) who now lives with them. She's doing great and it makes me so happy.

The train took about 7 hours and it was great...no stress. No need to drive the car and find parking here in paris. We listened to music, I did my french homework and Bruce drew. Nice ride up to Paris.

We arrived at 7 pm and took a taxi to the hotel. We are staying in the 11th at the grand hotel francais. It's lovely and clean and modern, a great choice. We showered and then went out to dinner around 8:00 pm. We walked around and found a cute bistro called "les funamuble" which means "tightrope walker" in french. We sat outside as it was a beautiful warm evening. I ordered the poulet with riz de coco and Bruce had the entrecote with fries and of course we had some Gaillac vin de rouge and an amazing dessert that was a mi-cuite chocolate, yummy. Next to us was a couple about our age and they had their daughter with them. 5 minutes after we sat down we started talking with them and continued to for 2 hours. They were lovely and when they left both of us said "those are 2 people we'd love to hang out with". We finished our meal and asked for the check. The waiter informed us that the couple paid for our dinner! Seriously, they bought our dinner for us! How unbelievable is that. We spoke with the waiter and he said they just live around the corner, come in all the time and he knows them very well, so Bruce left them a note giving them our cell phone and email. We told them we'd love to get together again before we leave on Friday and we thanked them for the meal...telling them it was very classy to do that!

So, that's it. Our first 4 hours in france and we met a lovely french couple who bought us dinner. Don't tell me that the french are not friendly...they are wonderful people when you open up and speak to them.

We are both very excited to be here until Friday. I think we both needed this. I'll get a chance to meet Leesa and Barbara on Tuesday and my sister comes in on Wednesday with her students from her school and also my brothers niece is with my sister as well. It will be such a fun time. We'll take loads of pictures and update each day. Sorry that I don't have any pictures yet...stay tuned.

18 vins à gôuter

2009-06-03T20:37:00.013+02:00

some of the wine we were to taste

On Monday we went to a wine tasting at Marin & Pella's home. We were set to taste 18 different french wines. We arrived at 7:00 pm and immediately started our tasting. We began with the whites, 7 of them

1. Domaine Octavie, Savignon de Touraine (Loire) 2008
2. Voignier, Domaine de Lascours (languedoc) 2008
3. Château Marie du Fou, Blanc, Fiefs Vendéens-Mareiul (Loire) 2008
4. Mâcon-Solutré Domaine Pascal & mireille Renaud (Burgundy) 2008
5. Pinot Blanc, Cuvée Traditionnelle, Robert Faller et Fils (Alsace) 2007
6. Gewürztraminer, Cuvée Traditionnelle,Robert Faller et Fils (Alsace) 2007
7. Rasteau, La Galopine, Domaine des Escaravailles (Rhône) 2008

Yummy. Liked #2 - hint of green apple, a bit tarte and crisp. #4 was good and #5 was very good, but could have been a bit colder. #6 was very dry, not so sweet and very nice.

All of these we done on an empty stomach. argh! There were 12 of us, from France, England, Belgium, New Zealand and America (us). 4 of the people (including the host) we knew from the English Library in Villefranch, everyone else we didn't know but got to know very quickly. Everyone was lovely.

our new friends

Bruce and Guy talking about the wine

Guy Boursot who owns a wine shop just south of Calais, France brought all the wines to taste and Laurent Cagnat who is a wine dealer who lives near Villefrance coordinated the evening, his wife cooked the meal, which was wonderful.

We all wished we had a bit of something when we started, to soak up a bit of the wine. But the first tasting was amazing. Before starting the red Laurent's wife brought out some bread and fois gras (made by her grand mére). Amazing.

After the white can the red (yes!).... Here is what we tasted.

8. Brouilly Domaine de Chêne (Beaujolais) 2007

9. Bourgogne Joseph Faively (Burgundy) 2006

10.Château Massmier la Mignarde, Tradition (Minervois) 2006

11. Château de Lascours, Nobilis, Pic Saint-Loup (Coteaux du Langeudoc) 2007

12. Rasteau, Les Sabilères Domaine des Escaravailles (Rhône) 2007

13. Syrah, Domaine Bassac, Vin de Pays des Côtes de Thongue, 2007 (Organic)

14. Château Baret, Pessac-Léognan (Claret) 2000

yummy is all I can say. I like whites but really don't drink them much, we love the reds so this was really nice. The only problem we found (and others too) is that by the time we reached the reds we were a bit "buzzed" and talking more with others and didn't take as many notes as when we were drinking the whites. But here is what I wrote. #8 - just an everyday wine, sort of like a vin de table. #9 - very very nice, #10 - very strong tanin, good taste, good after too, #11 excellent, #12 good, #13 really nice, #14 amazing (of course this was 17.40 euros a bottle).

All the others were an average of 7 euros a bottle, not bad.

Then it was time for dinner. Here was the menu.

the dinner menu

sitting down for the meal

across is david and leslie

How fast time goes when you are having a great time. We sat next to Claire and her husband Pierre. Pierre works for the marie (mayor) of Villefranche and Claire is the english teacher at the private school in Villefranche. On my right was Nick a great man to know as he's a mason and carpenter. Lived in the Aveyron for 15 years. Wonderful people and funny too. I didn't look at my watch until we were leaving and it was 1:00 am! oh my. We got home at 1:30.

We had a great time, ordered some of the wine we liked and met some wonderful people. It was an amazing evening.

Mon premier "Cyclo Sportive"

2009-06-02T16:02:00.009+02:00

my Lemond all ready to go

just waiting for the race to start

along with everyone else

i was just looking around for other women!

On Sunday Bruce and I did our first Cyclo Sportive called the "L'Albigeoise" in Albi (about 1 hour south of us).

Cyclo Sportives (sometimes spelled Cyclo Sportifs but correctly Cyclosportives, since the full name is randonnée cyclosportive and randonnée is a female noun in French) are long distance, organised, mass-participation cycling events typically held annually. Sportives are the cycling cousin of running’s marathon: as with the 42 kilometer (26 mile) event, rather than racing other participants, sportives see many cyclists use the event to challenge themselves in a personal battle against the distance and then ultimately, the clock.

Also like the marathon, the top placed riders in a Cyclosportive ride the event like a race and there are prizes awarded and considerable prestige for top place finishers in events like the Marmotte, Etape du Tour and the Ardechoise.

A cyclosportive falls between a traditional road race and a non-competitive randonnée or Audax event. Riders normally carry a number and the time they take to complete the course is recorded. There is usually an upper time limit within which the course must be completed (unlike many randonnée events, there is no lower limit preventing riders from completing the course quickly). The already lengthy course will traditionally include climbs and difficult riding conditions, adding to the merit of the event (e.g. the cobblestones of the Paris-Roubaix).

The routes will usually be well sign-posted and/or marshalled (some cyclosportives take place on roads which have been closed to motor traffic for the duration of the event), riders will be able to use feeding stations positioned at intervals along the route to replenish their food and drink supplies and mechanical and medical support may also be provided. Some attract thousands of participants - since 2000 l'Etape du Tour has offered places to 8,500 riders each year.

There were 3 distances to choose from: 130km 106km and 78km. We both decided to do the 106km route (66 miles). We didn't think it would be a problem, we have rode 106km many times and we figured with it being down by Albi it wouldn't be super hilly like up here in the Aveyron. Boy were we wrong. First let me start with Saturday, because we had to drive down to Albi late Saturday afternoon to register. Then we had to leave around 6:30 am on Sunday because the race started at 9:00 am AND we had to find a parking space on an incline so we could bump start Claude (our car). We are still have problems with him but right now he's as the car doctor getting all fixed up.

look at the great incline we found

There were probably around 1,000 participants in the race and maybe 2% were women. And these women looked strong...thinking they were probably x-pro riders, gulp. But I just figured I'd ride at my own pace and I'd be fine, it's only 106km. I knew I wouldn't be first so why stress. As we were driving to Albi that morning Bruce said to me "don't mind the lightening and dark skies." It looked grim, I knew we'd get rained on. When we rode up to the start I was very impressed, we had a lead car with lights and about 20 guys on motorcycles, a huge stage and big area for us to be packed into (just like cattle). 9:00 am on the dot and we are off...9:05 am and it started to rain. Luckily I had my rain vest with me so on it went. The ride started very fast and being in a pelaton with so many people was a bit sketchy but you just have to pay attention to the person in front of you (and their wheel). Last thing I wanted to do was touch someones wheel and go down.

We probably rode 5km and hit the first hill, figured no big deal just a hill, but they didn't stop. Seriously the ride from start to finish went something like this; climb and steep hill, descend a steep hill, climb a steep hill, descend a steep hill, over and over and over for about 95km. The rain did not let up either, in fact it rained (hard) for the first 3 1/2 hours of the ride. Descending in these conditions wasn't fun. The ride was brutal, in fact I can honestly say it was the hardest ride that I have ever done in my life! I lost Bruce in the pack about 10km into the ride, but we knew that would happen. I didn't want to slow him down and if I tried to keep at his pace I'd hit a wall very fast.

man those skies look dark

heading through Albi

more of Albi (a beautiful city)

it's gonna rain!

After 3 1/2 long wet hours it was such a pleasure to see the sun. I was drenched, my feet were squishing in my socks which were squishing in my shoes, my kit was so wet and soggy, but I couldn't stop, I just had to suck it up and keep riding. It was hard to eat my bars because we were either going up hill (and I just can't eat when I'm basically out of breath) or we were going downhill and I didn't want to crash. There were 2 stops on the side of the road with Coke (such a great thing when you are riding) and oranges and bars and gummies. So I stopped for about 1 minute at each of these.

Usually when I do around 106km it takes me about 4 hours. But this course was so hard with all the hills, 4 hours came and went and I wasn't done. 4 1/2 hours came and went and then I hit 5 hours. I actually thought I was probably the last one on the course, but that wasn't the case.

Bruce was waiting for me at the finish and the first thing he said was "holy crap...that was the hardest ride I have ever done", which made me feel better! I crossed the finish line in 5 hours and 6 minutes. Longest I've been in the saddle and damn did my ass hurt. It took Bruce 4 hours and 20 minutes.

We were spent and headed back to the car, changed and went to find food. We had a hard day, parts of it were miserable but all in all I had a great time. Burned a few calories too. We are already set to do 2 more Cyclo Sportives this month, the first is the Saint Geniez d'Olt (here in the Averyon) on June 21st, it doesn't look as hard as the one we just did, so I think we are going for 123km. The second on June 27 is the L'Ariégeoise and it's just south of Toulouse, we'll probably do the 110km distance. For now, I'm just taking a few days off...but will be back on the bike tomorrow.

Life at Los Costes

2009-05-28T15:51:00.007+02:00

I haven't been updating my blog very much, only because you are probably not interested in our boring days. We get up around 8am, have coffee and breakfast, take the dogs out, check emails and then decide what to do that day. If it's Tuesday or Friday I get up earlier to go to french class until noon. If it's nice in the morning we either take the dogs for a hike, go for a trail run or go for bike ride. We either go into town to do shopping or go to the market on Thursday or Sunday. We take a nap most every day and right now are obsessed with watching the Giro d'Italia (kind of like the Tour de France of Italy), so we are home between 3-6pm. Pretty simple life and I'm sure you are not interested in hearing our daily itinerary.

Last time I posted I was in tears because Rhoda and Lefty were killed by a fox and we were taking Fanny over to my friend Dawns house. Well that didn't work out. Her 4 hens are very small and the first day Fanny was great but on the second day she decided to bully them. She wouldn't let them eat or drink or even go into their coop. Dawn is new to chickens and was having a hard time seeing this happen (it always does with chickens, they need to figure things out and re-do the pecking order) and I didn't want to upset her so I told her I'd come to get her. Then I decided to email the ladies who take care of Dashell & Stella when we go away. They have 3 golden retrievers, x number of cats and chickens. I thought they might know someone who would take Fanny. In no time flat I received an email back telling me they would take her. They are so lovely. So we took her up last Thursday. One of their hens is quite large which might make it harder for fanny to bully and they have a coq (he keeps order in the flock). They emailed us later that afternoon and things were going well. We haven't heard from them so we figure the chickens are still working things out (which they have no problem letting happen) or she's fit in fine. I'm thankful for them, they are lovely people.

2 weeks ago we were visited by JNRR and her adorable dogs. Felt like I have known her for a long time, maybe because we have corresponded via email and blogs for over a year. We had a great weekend visiting a few vide greniers (kind of like a huge yard sale), going to a party for our friend Ben, cooking together and drinking great wine.

this is Bruno

This is Louis

This is just a man at one of the vide greniers

Yesterday JNRR came over again for a short visit and we had quite an adventurous 24 hours. We snuck onto the property that we have been looking at to buy and were surprised to find one of the side doors open, so we went in and spent about 1 hour in the house looking around. I was great to get her opinion, because the place is structurally sound but needs loads of TLC and it's huge.

Today we had a bit of an epic. We have been having some problems with Claude, our 1985 Peugeot station wagon. Our mechanic said it's was the starter (he can't take it until Tuesday) so some days it will start and others we have to pop the clutch (so amazing that works). Yesterday as we were coming back to the house I noticed the gas light was on (Bruce was driving) and I asked him if we should stop for gas. "No, I think we are ok". We made it home no problem, but this morning Bruce was heading over to pick up some croissants and the car wouldn't start, so he popped the clutch and it started, but when he turned out of our driveway into the road it stalled...it was out of gas. Argh! So JNRR had to drive us into town to get a gas can and some gas. Claude was left on the side of the road out in front of our house, when we got back JNRR and I had to push him to get him going (Bruce helped to)...but then JNRR slipped and fell and right as she did a big bus (for hauling kids to and from school) came ripping around the corner. Close call, she was almost road kill.

This is Claude

Luckily after many tries Claude came back to life. If JNRR wouldn't have been here we would have been stranded for a while. I knew she came here for a reason! Claude will go to the mechanic on Tuesday for a new starter. Once he's all fixed up we are planning a trip to Brantome to visit JNRR to see her lovely house, spend some time in the beautiful Dordogne and see the boys, hopefully very soon.

We have had lovely sunny warm days and a few nights some great thunderstorms. We opened the pool 2 days ago, although we haven't ventured into it yet, still a bit chilly. We are excited to go to Paris (mid-june) to see my sister and brother-in-law and my brothers daughter. My sister is an art history professor and is bringing a group of her students over to europe and my 17 year old niece is coming too. We'll spend 4 days in Paris and we can't wait. Bruce loves Paris.

The wild poppies are in full bloom and are stunning!

That's about it for us. Just a simple life in southwest france.