Our year in France

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

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

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.