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

Another Year

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.

Our Carte de Séjours

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.

Petite Randonnées

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!

Our last camps at the studio

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.