summer lovin'

It's almost the end of July. Hold up - time is going by too fast, as usual. It's just slipping away from me.

Since my last update, I spent two glorious weekends in the countryside. Oh, and I moved! Now, I have a charming little studio to my name. AND IT'S RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET FROM A PASTRY SHOP. What a terrible (read awesome) place to be. The place is mostly furnished, but when I'm done decorating it, it'll be full of owl decorations. OWLS. You know you're getting old when you start lingering by home decoration stores.

The first weekend of July started with an unexpected trip to the countryside. I must admit that despite being a city girl through and through, sometimes a trip to the countryside is much needed to get away from all that connection through wifi and phone. My French mom and I spent some time together visiting Troyes and running errands.

Beautiful house in Troyes

Because we had Bastille day off, I took Tuesday off as well and spent another four days in Clérey. The kids were pretty excited to go as was I. I mean, of course I want to run in the countryside again. Fireworks for Bastille day took place on Saturday the 12th. In smaller villages, they do it much earlier than larger cities. They didn't want to do it on the 13th because it would have coincided with the World Cup Final. Who wants to miss that? Not this person.

Here's a fun fact of the day. While the kids were picking out firecrackers to play with, I read a tiny blurb about the creation of the French gendarmerie. Apparently, back in the days, in order to protect travelers from bandits, thieves and thugs, villages created the gens d'armes meaning men of arms. That was the predecessor of today's National Gendarmerie.

I spent most of the break sleeping, eating, running and helping out my French mom clean out the barn. And then there was more running and eating.

By the shores of the Seine

Chaperoning the kids

Home in the garden -  I spent a sunny afternoon picking prunes 

We had another mild heat wave here, so this past Saturday was spent at a lake. I went canoeing!

 

la plage

Of course, it poured on Sunday. We've been getting some bipolar weather here. And of course I can't find my umbrella when I wanted to go somewhere. Instead, I ended up running to the museum. You know you're in the middle of summer when it doesn't stop raining from morning until afternoon with occasional thunder throughout the entire day. 

Looking forward to more summer days and more traveling and of course, more beautiful time in Lyon.