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.

Following the sun

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.