Dear Kate Middleton,

You looked gorgeous at your wedding today!  

I swooned over your dress & your handsome groom.

Congratulations to both of you!

I know things will be quite hectic for a while,

but after all the post-wedding excitement dies down, 

you may be wondering what to do with that beautiful veil of yours.

Please let me suggest a few window treatments I saw while in Flavigny:

Recycling is chic these days, you know.

Even for Royals!

Do let me know what you think.

love to you & William,

 Emily

Le muguet de mai

Lily-of-the-valley is called muguet in French

{or muguet de mai if you're feeling especially poetic!}

I'm looking forward to seeing all the lily-of-the-valley bouquets

that will magically appear for sale over the next few days

chez florists, 

at the market, 

or simply on card tables set up on street corners.

You see, in France it's traditional to offer small bunches of muguet 

to those you love on May 1st, 

a holiday which is the equivalent of Labour Day in North America.

But I already knew that.

Here are some things I didn't know about lily-of-the-valley 

until I set about writing this post:

* it's highly poisonous {yikes!}

* other names for the flower include 

May bells, ladder-to-heaven & Our Lady's tears

{call me traditional but I think I prefer "lily-of-the-valley"...}

* it's the national flower of Finland

* in French folklore, it represents 13 {lucky?} years of marriage

* according to the "language of flowers", 

it signifies the return of happiness

Speaking of happiness, 

our walk in the woods near Flavigny last weekend

to pick muguet was one of my favourite Easter moments.

Heading into the forest...

There's got to be some muguet in there somewhere...

Is that the Easter Bunny?  Nope, it's FQ.

Jackpot!!

All photos taken by moi.

Nerdy flower facts via here & here.

Frenglish: ewaving

While I'm off sorting through all my photos of 

our Easter weekend in Flavigny,

here's some more T-shirt Frenglish to keep you entertained.

So what on earth is "ewaving"?

Is it like regular waving except through the internet?

Nobody knows.

Scènes du Week-end {6}

We had a lovely long weekend celebrating Easter with FQ's grandma.

I took a million photos of the gorgeous village she lives in, 

but I've decided to tease you 

by only posting a few of them today.

But don't worry.

I'm going to distract you with shots of 

the beautiful French countryside, 

some hand-picked lily-of-the-valley 

& things flowering everywhere.

Ready?

View of Flavigny on our Easter Sunday-morning walk.

I think these horses had Spring Fever.

Walking in a wooded wonderland...

Lily-of-the-valley love.

Cherry tree in FQ's gran's backyard.

Gorgeous yellow colza field as seen from the car.

Ths wall is part of Flavigny's fortifications.

I spotted this Easter-appropriate basket on somebody's front stoop.

Have you ever seen such happy-looking pansies?

Bicycle, flowers & sunshine... all you really need!

Joyeuse Pâques !

Happy Easter!  

Easter chocolate on display in a supermarket, Paris, April 2010.

Words to live by, n'est-ce pas?

Monday is a holiday here in France, 

which means a three-day weekend.  Hooray!

We are heading off to visit FQ's grandma.  

She lives in a beautiful village called Flavigny, 

which I've only been to once.

I'm looking forward to wandering the little cobblestoned streets again 

& to having apéritif with assorted relatives.

{It seems like FQ is related to half the village!}

I'll be back early next week with "Les Scènes du Week-end".  

I'm sure it will include photos of le village,

the pretty French countryside surrounding it

& a chocolate egg or two.

Joyeuse Pâques !

I love Annecy in the springtime...

It's Thursday afternoon & I finally have a few hours to myself.

I'm teaching a lot these days.  

Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday zoom by 

in a blur of lesson-planning & classes.

I love my job,

but it makes me cranky when I don't have time for myself 

{& my little blog!} 

Fortunately Thursdays & Fridays are a lot less busy.

That means a chance to catch up on e-mails & phone calls, 

linger over after-lunch coffee on our balcony,

go for a bike ride

& enjoy how beautiful Annecy is in the spring.

On that note, here are a few of Nikola's photos of the old town 

that she took during her visit last week.

Annecy's most famous landmark, the old prison.

Lovely old buildings & canals?  Yes please!

And how about throwing in some tulips, just to make it even more scenic?

Swoon!

Scènes du Week-end {5}

As you know, my friend Nikola was here visiting.

She's back in Prague tonight {sniff sniff}

so I'm cheering myself up with photos of all the fun 

we had over the past few days.

Saturday = Market Day. 

First fraises of the season!

Saturday afternoon meant a little pedalboating & a lot of sunbathing on the lake.

Land ho!

Yes, I wore my nautical socks in honour of our outing.  I'm nerdy like that.

Back on dry land & time for a windy self-portrait on the dock.

Ice cream at the best place in Annecy's old town.

Sunday was a day trip to Chamonix to see mountains & glaciers.

And wander through the ice cave.  {So.  Cool.  Pun intended.}

And get all excited about seeing une marmotte!  Can you spot her?

So so so fun!

Thanks for visiting, Nikola!

Welcoming (crêpe) party

My friend Nikola is here in Annecy.

Hooray for friends who come to visit!

She arrived (via Prague & Lyon) last night, 

so of course a crêpe party was in order,

as per the house guest tradition.

We have many a fun plan over the next few days:

* explore Annecy's old town

* sit around in cafés discussing Sartre
(or just catching up on the gossip)

* eating lots of things made with melted cheese

* wander around the lake & feed stale baguette to the ducks

* a girls' night out (or maybe in...)

I'll be back soon to tell you all about it...

What's making me happy this Tuesday...

See this beautiful lilac bush 
we spotted near my parents-in-law's house last weekend?

Well, now a lucky few of those lovelies
are cheering up my dining-room table.

It smells delightful in here!

P.S.  If you'd like to read another lilac-scented post,
wander on over to Conguating Irregular Verbs
{a nice blog I've recently discovered about
an American family living in the south of France}.

Scènes du Week-end {4}

It was a weekend of many firsts:

* first time eating outdoors this year

* first BBQ since last summer

& {most importantly!}

* my nephew Martin's first birthday 

Friday:  rosé wine & dinner {outside!!} chez FQ's parents

Saturday: lunch at my sister-in-law's house

Martin's birthday cake {vanilla ice cream + raspberry cream + meringue = yum}

The birthday boy {much more interested in his toy broom than his actual presents}

My niece the princess with the magic wand we gave her as a"unbirthday" present.

After she got tired of casting spells, Juliette moved on to something more serious:  Hello Kitty stencils & glitter pens.

After lunch, we went for a walk in the woods close to the railway tracks.  Look at all that green!

The birthday boy & us girls.

He was pretty excited about being alllll the way up there on FQ's shoulders.

Blue sky + blossoms... is there anything better?

Because you can never have too much blue sky...

This week just whizzed by!  

It was filled with:

* a lot of new lessons to keep me busy

* beautiful weather to bike to class in 

* a few trips to my new gym 

{aquafit on Tuesday & step aerobics on Thursday, whoa!}

* a fun night out on Tuesday

The amazingly warm & beautiful weather 

we've been having is going to continue all weekend, 

so I'll surely be back here on Monday with more photos of sunny skies.

In the meantime, here are a few more pictures of the gorgeous view

that was our reward after that big walk last Saturday.

Do you think the people in that house ever get tired of their view?

Looking down at the town of Talloires.

That's misletoe hanging off the tree branch.  Really!

Mental note:  make friends with whoever owns that boat.

Hope you find some blue sky of your own this weekend!