Back to "the office" one last time.

Hiking up to Amiel, one last time.

When we first moved to France back in 2008 we had stopped climbing.  If you've read this blog for a while you know that we stopped climbing and started road biking.  In fact, our first year here we road almost every day.  It was a great way to see the area, but sometimes it was so cold I couldn't feel my hands or feet.  I met Bruce climbing and we had climbed in some amazing places, but one day we decided to try something different, so we first started surfing, then I started doing triathlons and then we started road biking.  But when we came back to France in 2010 we looked around and realized there was so much amazing limestone just minutes from us, we had to start climbing again.

Nellie lounging at the cliff.

It was hard to get back on the horse.  I was afraid of falling, afraid of leading and we started out on the easiest climbs we could find.  But we were both hooked again, we put our bikes away and spent 3-4 days a week climbing on the most beautiful limestone.  That was 4 years ago, and we are still climbing as much as we can.  I'm not so much afraid of falling or leading anymore and I'm not doing the easiest climbs either.  In fact, this year I did my hardest route ever.  Not bad for 51.

When we first started climbing again, the perfect place for us was Amiel.  It's 10 minutes from our house and has great climbing.  Easy stuff to hard stuff and lots in the middle.  We'd call it "the office".  It's a 30 minutes hike up and you get the most beautiful view of a tiny village call Penne.  If it's during the week, it's usually just Bruce and I.

Looking down towards Penne.

The last 2 weeks we haven't seen the sun.  It's been cold, wet, gloomy and cloudy.  Nothing makes me more depressed.  But today it was sunny and perfect climbing temps.  Mid 40's and blue skies. It was a perfect day to go to Amiel and get one last day in at the office before moving to Spain.  I would have been sad to leave this area without saying goodbye to Amiel.

So today we hiked up and spent 4 hours climbing.  It was great.  I said goodbye to Amiel and told her I'd see her again one day (which I'm sure I will), I also thanked her for bringing me back to climbing.
She's been good to us and we'll miss her.  But I'm sure we'll be finding some new amazing places to climb in Spain.

And this was the sunset today from our yard.

Big Changes....they are a coming.

We've been here in France for 5 years and we love it.  But, both of us have been thinking, is this it? Luckily we have always been on the same page when it comes to our lives.  It would be so hard if I wanted to go back to the states and Bruce wanted to stay here.  We love Spain, have been many times and continue to visit.  We love  San Sebastian and Bilbao (The Basque Country), but we also love Catalunya.

Our landlords want to sell the house we are in.  We could buy it if we wanted, but it makes us a bit nervous.  What if this area of France isn't it.  What if we bought and then in 5 years we wanted to sell and try something else.  Houses in this area don't sell super fast.  We don't want to be stuck with a 7 bedroom farmhouse in rural France.  We were talking to our landlord the other day and he mentioned that they really want to market the selling of the house, there are things they want to do to the house and then they want to find a buyer.  Because of that, we got to thinking about moving.  If the house sold we'd have to move, but would we stay here or try something else.  After many discussions, we decided that we aren't going to wait for the house to sell and then make a decision....we are making it now.  So, we have decided to move to Spain.  Catalunya to be exact.  Why Catalunya you ask?

Well, we love the area.  The rock-climbing is world class, the Mediterranean is beautiful, the people are so friendly, Girona is a fun,  lively city, Barcelona is cool and the food is amazing.  So, we took a trip down to check out areas.  We stayed in Girona and spent a few days looking around.  We have decided to focus on the area just north of Girona.  That makes climbing only 20-30 minutes away, the beaches of Costa Brava 20 minutes away, Girona 20 minutes away and Barcelona less than an hour away (faster if you take the train from Girona).  We'll be heading back down to look at some houses, stay tuned.

Bruce took this shot and I just love it "open your eyes"

It's been over 35 years

I'm back....it's been forever and I know I've written before that I'm going to get back to blogging.  But things always come up and I get busy and then I don't think that what I'm doing is very interesting to others.  But this time I'm going to stick with it.  I've had this blog for way too long to just let it go dry.

We had a visitor....a person I haven't seen in over 35 years.  Thanks to Facebook, we've reconnected. My friend Janice came to visit to our lovely rural area of France.

here we are at the top of Cordes-sur-Ciel

At the castle in Najac

Reunited

Walking around the beautiful village of Bruniquel

Finally getting a crepe

I knew what she looked like, basically the same as high school, but we hadn't hung out or really talked, besides pm'ing on Facebook.  I was super excited to see her.  She only stayed a week, which really wasn't long enough, but had such a great time.  We took her to all the amazing medieval villages in our area (Cordes-sur-Ciel, Albi, St. Antonin Noble Val, etc...) we drank great wine, cooked excellent meals together and had a really great time.  I was sad to see her leave but I know she'll be back!

2014 Goals (not resolutions)

I don't believe in Resolutions and I don't make them each year.  But what I do do is write down goals for the year.  I do personal and professional goals.  This year I don't have too many, but thought I'd share what I do have.

My 2014 personal goals.  Most are fitness related, because I'm a bit obsessed with climbing and fitness. In 2013 my goal was to climb 7a+ (12a), if you don't know anything about climbing, routes have grades depending on the difficulty.  Grades in France are different from American grades, but they mean the same thing (like a 7a+ in France is the same as a 12a in America).  Grades usually start at a 4 and it goes from 4, 5, 5+, 6, 6a, 6a+, 6b, 6b+, 6c, 6c+, 7a, 7a+, 7b, etc...all the way to the hardest route 9b+ (5.15c), something I'll never achieve in my lifetime.  I'm now at 7a+,  I climbed 3 in 2013.  My goal for 2014 is 7b.  So much harder than 7a+, even though it might not seem like it, trust me it's a huge jump.  But it's something I'm going to go for this year.

using my new sandbag (30 lbs)

This always make me happy!

Another goal is to do a press-up handstand.  I was a gymnast from when I was 8-14 and I could do one back when I was young, but I want to try to do one again, while I'm 50.  If you don't know what one is, you can see it below.  It might be harder than climbing 7b, in fact I'm sure it is.  On one youtube video it says it can take 5 years to master!  Kino is awesome and she's got a great youtube channel, check it out here.

Kino doing press-up handstand.

I also want to take some pottery classes or get some studio time at a studio nearby.  You might not know this, but I am a potter.  I had a complete studio when I lived in Los Angeles and sold my work at a few stores there too.  But when we moved to France I had to sell my wheel and kiln (too expensive to ship and the wrong plug and voltage).  I have never been in a place where I could throw again, it's expensive to set-up a studio and also you need a good place to set it up (good ventilation).  We'd like to build a studio here at the house, but it won't happen until the end of the year.  I can't throw in Bruce's studio, because I'd take up too much space.  I really miss it and have found a few studios in Toulouse, 1 hour away, but that's no big deal. I'm going to go and visit them, see which is best for me and sign up. Time to get back in the studio and play with some clay.

some of my pieces.

I will also continue to eat healthy and clean and keep fit.  I'm in the best shape of my life at 50 and I plan on staying that way.  On days I don't climb I usually do a Bodyrock workout or a TRX workout. I Eating clean is easy to do here in rural France.  You only eat what is in season, there aren't tons of choices at the store, we don't eat pre-packaged or food with preservatives...everything is fresh and local. I pretty much follow a paleo/zone diet....stay away from rice, pasta, wheat, bread and sugar.  I still have my glass of wine though.....it's healthy, right?  I've been making some great soups (I'll do a post on them in a bit) and also some sweets that are made with Agave, one an amazing biscotti.

That's about it for my personal goals.  Nothing crazy (well the press-up handstand might be) but I need something to work towards.  Luckily we live 10 minutes from amazing climbing, so I'll be able to work on my 7b as much as I want (or can).  Goals are important to me, not resolutions.  What about you?  Do you set any goals each year?

2013 - What a year

I was talking to my friends daughter on New Years Eve about writing a blog.  I showed her my blog and then realized I hadn't updated it since last January.  Pathetic.  So, one of my goals for 2014 is to update it regularly.  The only problem is that our life here in France is pretty simple and to some, maybe a bit boring.  But, I'll do my best to write about some interesting things!

But this post will be about 2013.  Just a little re-cap of our year.

The winter here was horrible.  Starting in November of 2012 it was cold, it continued through December and in January snow.  We headed to Spain to find some sun and do some climbing.  Once you drove over the Pyrénées into Spain in was sunny and much warmer.  We spent 5 days there.

The road to our house.

Not everyone was unhappy.

Stella with her snow balls.

A small traffic jam in sunny Spain.

In February we headed to Paris for 4 days to attend some camp fairs.  It was freezing and sleeting most of the time.  Not fun.  After Paris we headed towards Nice for another camp fair.  The weather was much nicer and we spent a couple extra days climbing at Chateauvert and we also visited the Picasso museum outside of Nice.

Spent most of the time in Paris underground.

Bruce and his favorite Artist.

Sun and warm in southeast France.

At the end of February we headed back to Spain with our friends Mike and Nicci for some hiking, mountain biking and climbing, spent a week there,  good times.

In Spain with our good friends.

In March we had 2 visitors.  First was our good friend Chris who came for 3 weeks from Colorado to climb.  We climbed here for the first 2 weeks and then headed back to Spain for another week of climbing.  At the end of February our friend Paul came from Los Angeles for 10 days, he's also a climber and we stayed around here as the weather was getting better.  It was good to have both of them here.

April was quiet, weather wasn't so bad, so we did loads of climbing, hiking and running.

Always a good day when we're climbing.

In May we had our adult culinary retreat with Chef Carol Cotner Thompson.  We had a great group of women from Los Angeles for the week.  It was filled with great food, good wine and loads of laughter.

Chef Carol with some of her students cutting up whole ducks.

In June, Bruce went back to Paris to meet his good friend Kevin who scored tickets to the French Open.  He spent 4 days in Paris and the two had a great time.  Our good friends B and B arrived from Los Angeles for the summer.  We met them 5 years ago in Los Angeles, right before we moved to France. Little did we know they owned a house in our village, we've been great friends ever since. They only come here in the summer, it was so good to see them.  We then spent the rest of June climbing and getting the house ready for our teen art retreats, which started the last week of June.

Me and Bruce (not my Bruce, but the "other" Bruce)

Bruce and Kevin in Paris at the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris.

July and August were super busy.  We had (3) teen art retreats, each 16 days long, with a 2 day break in-between.  It's non-stop 24/, but we love it!  We had amazing teens from all over the world come and stay with us and they created some fantastic art.  We had a girl from Hong Kong come for all 3 sessions (she was with us for 7 weeks).  She was like our adopted child.  I cried when she left.  At the end of August we hosted (3) families here at Haute Serre.  Our good friends Brant and Tia came with their 2 boys and they brought (2) other couples and their (4) kids.  They spent a week with us, kids doing art in the mornings and in the afternoons we toured them around our region.  A wonderful week with great people.

In September I turned 50!  Our "family" retreat was here and I got (5) cakes.  Two of the girls made (2) cakes and Bruce bought (3).  After the family retreat ended, Bruce and I headed over to Millau to do some rock climbing in the Gorges du Tarn. We spent a week exploring, hiking and climbing.  A perfect birthday.  We came home from my birthday week we were outside and heard a cry.....we took a flashlight and walked around the back of the house and down the road.  Bruce and I could hear the cry but couldn't see anything, and then all of sudden we saw a little black kitten.  Dumped right on the side of the road, she was in the nettles, crying.  We took her in (we couldn't leave her out there) and she could fit in my hand.  We took her to the vet the next day and found out she was about 4 weeks old. We decided (we'll maybe she decided too) to keep her and now she's almost 5 months old.  Her name is Colette.

One of my fantastic cakes.

This is the love letter I got from Bruce....it ended with "50 things I love about you".

Our new addition to the pack.  Colette.

In October we headed back to Los Angeles to visit family and friends, as it had been over 2 years since we've been back.  We spent a week in Los Angeles and then headed out to Las Vegas to climb at Red Rocks.  Our friends (who we stayed with) daughter turned 14 when we came back from Vegas and she and Bruce spent an afternoon at Duff's Cakes making her birthday cake.  We spent another week in Los Angeles and then decided to go back to Vegas to do some more climbing for a few days.  While we were in Los Angeles, we saw family and good friends and spent quality time with our good friends E and K.  We also ate Mexican, Sushi, Vietnamese, Italian, etc....all the food we can't get here in France.  We were there a month. Thank goodness for our good friends Mike and Nicci who took care of the dogs while we were away, Gill who took in Colette and E and K who took us in for a month!

The cake!

Red Rocks, Las Vegas, NV

Love the red rocks and blue sky.

Tired after a long day of climbing.

Visiting friends in Malibu, Bruce was excited to get back in the ocean.

Famous Hinano's in Venice.

Back to France the week before Thanksgiving.  We had a quiet non-eventful Thanksgiving (we had duck breast) and were happy to be home.  The weather was wonderful and warm and dry.

We spent most of December climbing, as again, the weather was fantastic.  We did head over to Brantome to see our good friend Kim.  We hadn't seen her in a few years and it was good to catch up. Our Christmas was quiet too, just the two of us.  New Year's Eve was spent at our good friends house, with 12 others.  Lovely time and great food.  We actually stayed up until after midnight, the first in a long time.  We had kept a memory jar for 2013 and on the 1st we opened it and read all the notes we had put in to remind us of things that happened during the year.

Beautiful Brantöme

 Kim and I on our way to lunch.

Here's to 2014.  Hope all of you have a fantastic year.

Alisa

I flunked art journaling

I know what you're thinking, "you can't flunk something you do at home".  It's not a class, you don't get a grade, you do it at home in your own time, but I swear I flunked.  I started with great intentions, to get back to being creative.  But I quickly found out that this type of creativity isn't for me.  I'm not a good artist, not super creative at putting things on paper.  I'm too critical and it just wasn't fun.

The good news is that I found a pottery studio in Montauban, about 35 minutes from us.  It's an open studio and you go once a week for 4 hours.  There is a teacher there to help you if you need it too.  I'm a potter.  I've thrown for 6 years, when we lived in Los Angeles (but haven't in almost 3).  When we moved here I had to sell my wheel, kiln, supplies, etc.  It was just too expensive to ship here.  I was so excited to find this studio and it's so inexpensive!

I've been twice and love it.  The women (5 of them) are all very nice and none speak English, which is great.  So I get to get my hands dirty, throw some pottery and speak french too.  This is my passion, this is what I love, this is what I'm good at.  Art journaling?  Nope.

Rocamadour

Today we drove up to Rocamadour, about 1.5 hours north of us in the Lot Department.  We had never been up there and heard it was stunning.  We want to take the kids there this summer, so we had to do a bit of recon.

Unfortunately it was a cloudy gray day, but the village is beautiful.  We had lunch at Chez Anne-Marie a little restaurant in the village and then walked up and around the village and visited the church.  I'm sure the kids will love it, as it's built into the limestone walls and is amazing!