La France

France – a week long relax
La France – Enfin les vacances


Feuille, plume, arbre, foret, roche, mouche, chien, fleur, chat
Leaf, Feather, Tree, Forrest, Rock, Fly, Dog, Flower, Cat……   These are some of the first French words I began reciting as we took walks through the forest with my new found friend, Noann. Lee’s 7 year old second cousin was more than happy to help me with my French in exchange for learning the equivalent in English, a perfect parrot and an enthusiastic teacher!

My speaking and understanding of French left me a little behind in conversation, but was made up quickly by the beautiful country side surroundings, the relaxed and welcoming nature of Lee’s French family and the time to finally just be…..

A house can be more than a home. Growing up in an environment where you are able to just sit and listen to the birds, look out to the lake for inspiration, run freely through the forest, climb on boulders unlike those in Fontainebleau in your own backyard and play outside happily for hours with the chickens, dogs, cats and horses could be taken for granted out here.

Time becomes irrelevant, yet a natural reminder is when the cock/rooster starts to crow at dawn, we sit down together for a breakfast, late lunch, 4pm tea, aperitif, dinner, followed by dessert/cheese. Enough to keep anyone happy and full!

Amongst this seemingly blissful and peaceful way of life we managed to sneak in a few hikes and couple rides through the countryside and the ancient Nantes to Brest canal-path.

Tomorrow we head south and gear up for a few days of beach bum antics with more family before a few final days in France through Paris, hoping to see Fiona in her show Lido.

We have been in about the most civilized and technologically advanced surroundings that we will be in for the next 13 weeks and yet it has taken 6 days to upload the first foreign post. Oh well. Hopefully more soon…

Merci a tous et a bientot.