Still Going

1991 VW GOLF GTI -- bought it for a couple thousand Euros a few months after we arrived in France.  Still going...

Dinner for 25 -- in Paris

IT'S BAC GRADING and examination season and that means 6-7 days in Paris (not a terrible thing, for sure).  Each year the coordinating school takes the whole lot of us out to dinner -- usually at very nice place -- and we always enjoy a nice evening together.  The restaurant has been chosen for this year: L'Autobus Imperial.  It's located in the 1st Arron. and has been described to me as THE Art-Nouveau restaurant in Paris (the only one?).  The website looks good -- take a look.

It all starts next week.  Now I just have to mark 35 bac exams -- each consisting of two 7-10 page essays. 
http://www.autobus-imperial.fr/

We're Moving

WE CANNOT DESCRIBE how lucky we have been to live in this house for the past few years.  We found it on a summer-rental web site and I remember writing to the owner on a whim and asking if he would be interested in renting it during the non-summer months -- September to June -- and he said yes.  The property owner lives in Paris and he and his family have been the most incredible "landlords" we could have imagined.  [Note: it an odd Small-World moment, we soon discovered that his children went to a school in the Paris area that is a sister-school of the lycée where I now teach.  I teach in the American section and his children went through the German section]

But next year this house will not be available and so we are getting ready to spend our last few nights in La Cigaliere -- and we won't soon forget it.  Those of you who have visited know what a little slice of paradise it is.  So that's the bad news.  The good news is that next year we will be living...next door!  More on that later.

The house, with a view of perhaps our favorite part -- the full glass
dining room that gives us incredible views of the Nice, the sea, and the surrounding mountains.
In winter we see the snow-capped mountains and the sea while we eat.

Just one of the many sunrises we enjoy each morning.
This is just one photo -- but Kerri and I often remark on how
no single sunrise is like another.  Each is different, and each is spectacular.

Another Summer Pack-Up

AS WE GET ready for what is now a routine -- getting ready to get our of our house for the summer -- I decided to upload some photos from previous summer adventures.  It's been a while since I looked at photos from the summer of 2010 and 2011.  Those were great summers for us -- as most of them seem to be.

Each summer we have to leave our house for nearly 3 months and every summer we find a new place to spend a bit of time.  Previous years:

• Summer 2008 - Puivert, France (Pyrenees)
• Summer 2009 - Strasbourg, France
• Summer 2010 - Macchia, Italy 
• Summer 2011 - Poitou-Charentes, France

Recently updated web albums can be accessed here.

You Know What's Fun...Family Visits

ONE OF THE highlights of our little French Adventure is the many visits we have had from friends and family.  Just last month our house was full of friends and family from the States.  We never get tired of it.  This time the treat was especially fun for me because for the first time since we moved, my dad, brother, and sister all come to visit at the same time.  As usual, we crammed a lot into a small time period (including a little road trip to Barcelona for my family members) and spend a lot of great time together.  Loved it. 

My dad with Patrick and Julia -- Avignon, France

My precious little sister and my precious little wife. -- Dolceacqua, Italy

My precious little brother trying to get a photo with the kids...and without me -- Ventimiglia, Italy.  (Julia was so happy to find an American Flag scarf at the market).

My dad with his three children.  

Cool Cats.