Something I've learned in the last four years...

« Aimer, ce n'est pas regarder l'un l'autre,

c'est regarder ensemble dans la même direction. »

- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

September 20, 2008, just a few hours after getting married in Gap, France. 

*****

"Love does not consist of gazing at each other, 

but of looking outward together in the same direction."

Instasamedi {Summer 2012}

C'est samedi !  

C'est le mois de septembre !

Back to school is just around the corner...

Back to blogging, however?   

That starts NOW!!!

You know what?

To sum up my summer (!) 

I've decided to share some Instagram photos.

My (fallen into disrepair) Instasamedi feature 

usually tells you about my week via seven photos.

But today?  I've allowed myself to post a dozen!  Pourquoi ?

Well, it's been 12 weeks since my last post {eeeeek!}

So without further ado, on y va ?

juin

We spent the last week of June on Belle-Île-en-Mer, 

which is {as its name suggests} a beautiful island 

off the Atlantic coast of Brittany.

One of the island's many gorgeous beaches

Sandy feet?  Yes please!

On the way to & from Brittany
{which involved train, métro, train again, bus, ferry...}
we stopped for a night or two in Paris to see friends 
& fancy stuff like this: 

Sacré Coeur, je t'adore !

juillet
July was mostly spent in & around Annecy.
Highlights?
The three-day Musilac Festival,
time spent with my mom in Zee Middle-of-Nowhere, France
{where she & a few of her friends had rented a place}
& lots of sunshine.

Yes, we saw LMFAO at Musilac.
{But please note:  this is NOT mon mari & moi !!!}

Rush hour in the village where my mom stayed...

Shadowy self-portrait in front of Annecy's Hôtel de Ville {= City Hall}

août

August was full-on vacation mode.

We spent a week in the Cantal region of France,

which is full of pretty villages, {long-dormant} volcanoes & cheese.

See that open window?  That's where FQ's grandpa lived as a child.

Cheese please! 

And then?

A week in Ireland!

I.  Loved.  It.

Pub perfection in Dublin.

Rainy yet festive?  That works for me!

It seems that the Irish love bad puns.  Moi aussi !

Me hanging out with the Irish Sea.

So there you go.

Feel back in the loop?  Moi aussi... ooof !

More soon, I promise...

Alors à bientôt & bon week-end tout le monde !

Il fait trop chaud pour un chocolat chaud !

Happy December!

You know what?

It was super difficile

to believe that it was the first day of December today.

The weather this afternoon in Annecy 

was gorgeous & practically warm.

I'm serious.

The sun was beating down!

Some people were sitting outside cafés,

 drinking beverages in their t-shirts.

Honestly!

C'est bizarre pour le mois de décembre, non ??!

As for me, 

I chose to celebrate the beginning of December 

by ducking into one of my favorite tea-rooms in town, 

the lovely & classy Fidèle Berger.

Their chocolat chaud ?

Amazing.

{Even on a practically hot December first...}

C'est possible que j'adore le jaune...

As I've mentioned before,

yellow has never really been my favourite colour.

But when I saw it in Budapest, I was quite impressed.

And like I said the other day, I love autumn.

So today's photos?

Lovely feuilles jaunes {= yellow leaves}

that I swooned over on the street near my house.

Finalement c'est possible que j'adore le jaune !

Three years ago today...

... we said "I do".

in a field near Gap, France, 20 September 2008

{Well, actually, we said "oui"!}

Dancing into the weekend...

Remember the tea dance from last weekend?

I wanted to share these few extra photos with you.

This lovely couple were dancing up a storm.

Don't they look fantastique?

As always, click on the photo to enlarge.

My friend Anna is here through the weekend.

We are off to Geneva for the day tomorrow.

Then Sunday is her last day in France, 

so we are planning on renting a pedal-boat on the lake 

& doing a few more last-minute Annecy things.
I'll be back on Monday to tell you all about it.

Bon week-end tout le monde !

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!