Let summer commence!

Another four months on, and we've moved from our lovely mountain home back down to our lovely seaside home - in between we've seen cold and wintery weather in the UK in late April/May, although we did manage to visit the beautiful Isabella Plantation in Richmond Park on probably the only sunny day while we were back.  And London Zoo, courtesy of the lovely Julieta (thank-you J!) which we both thoroughly enjoyed!  I also (despite the rain and cold) had a great day with friends at the Foodies Festival, Hampton Court, to which Jane and I travelled by boat along the River Thames from Richmond, and again the sun even came out for my solo return boat journey. 

But before we knew it, we were back on that orange plane to Nice, and up to Sigale for even more R&R before the official start to our summer.  We timed it nicely for the 'fete de partage', which we went to last year - basically a 'bring a dish' and eat and drink together afternoon, with a great band playing in the base of the old oak tree.  I can't imagine a better way to spend a Saturday afternoon.  The guys from the local snail farm even treated us to their snail vol-au-vents, with roquefort, goats cheese and garlic, which were delicious. I look forward to enjoying some more of the summer's festivities up in Sigale.  But work did beckon eventually, and we descended to the villa to do some cleaning and gardening in preparation for the first villa guests of the summer.

It's good to be back, and into some sort of routine (well, at least as much as our lives ever fall into a routine......), and we're looking forward to the summer ahead, with lots of sunshine, hopefully lots of visitors (the first of which are my parents next week), swimming in the Med and ice cold rose.  Perhaps I might even manage to persuade Giles to go camping? Watch this space......

A New Year in the Alps!

and how much snow? What a fab season it has been so far, with so much snow, even down here in Bozel where it normally rains! New Year went with a bang as always with a great New Years Day ski show (albeit with a large hangover....).

Since then it has been a blur of constant admin and email with some skiing thrown in, and most recently a cross country skating lesson, which was great - best intentions now are to practise on my own - not today though :-)

Just a short post really just to check back in, but hope to check in again soon!

Not quite autumn.........

We now have just over two weeks left before we board that familiar orange plane - seems like yesterday we were at Luton airport working out how to repack our baggage without being charged! It's been a really busy summer, with the villa full in the end from late May to the 24th September, a new winter website, and lots of visitors and trips to Sigale.

August was a great month, firstly with a visit from my big sis, Donna, who I hadn't seen for about 9 months, then a trip back to the UK for our friends' Jonny and Amelia's beautiful wedding in Kent, followed closely by a visit from Kate and Simon, then the Sigale fete and last but by no means least our Danish friends holidaying nearby (who we had not seen for three years!).

Now we are making the most of the still beautiful September weather, blue skies and around 28 degrees daily before we have to start the big house clean, studio clean and packup (next week......). Back to the UK on the 14th October, where the Warren Miller film tour beckons for G and lots of Exceptional Ski work for me, combined with a trip to Scotland in November......watch this space......

Vin, visitors and visiting......

Once again, it's been a while. This entry is dedicated to visitors and visiting - kind of essential when you live far away from friends and family - thanks to Stelios for making it a bit easier (despite the hassle we had flying back to France last time - all is forgiven!). Early in June my parents came to visit as they do regularly, and we had a lovely time both in Sigale in the Alpes Maritimes and down here on the coast - thanks for coming as always mum and dad! Recently we met up with Michelle, Steph and their daughter Olivia who had been staying nearby for the weekend, and had a great lunch on the beach before they headed back to their home in the Alps. We also had a very relaxing weekend in Sigale last week with G's mum(after a catalogue of car problems which I'm not going to bore anyone with!!) - bad heads after late night tucking into bizarre drinks from the licquor cupboard (normally we stick to wine and beer only, albeit too much!). And this week we were able to celebrate Bastille Day with Simon and Belinda who were down from the Alpes Maritimes for a couple of days. Friends have rented our villa for this week, G's sis, niece and nephew arrive in the Alpes Maritimes this week (where we're headed soon for another visit!) so we're really enjoying all this friend/family activity.

Other than that, we're busy getting our new website up and running, with huge thanks to our webmaster Alex, who is ever patient as we're not really 9 to 5 people.....and I'm still enjoying my Body Jam, Combat and Pump classes at the gym - great fun, and maybe someday I'll have that flat tum.....

May the visitors and visiting continue throughout the summer (and with it the vin which is usually the case.......)

Back in France and signing in again.....

Well it's been almost two months since my last post, and we've covered quite a few miles in that time! We left a very sunny and snow-less Courchevel in the middle of April, with still a week to go before the lifts closed (but not a lot of snow to ski on!). From there we drove our very packed (and unsold!) Espace down to Sigale where we spent a lovely week before flying back to London for Easter weekend, which we spent in Kew. The highlight of the last two months was our 10-night holiday in Sharm-El-Sheikh, which we spent scuba diving, lounging by the pool, snorkelling, with the odd Sakara beer and game of cards thrown into the mix - fantastic!


I barely had time to unpack my bag before I was flying up to Scotland for a quick trip, where I enjoyed spending a few days with mum, dad and Bailey, with an even quicker trip to Aberdeen thrown in (sorry Jen/Di there just wasn't time.....). Back to London for an evening with Paul and Julia, a day shopping for a wedding outfit (my worst nightmare), then on our last day Edie's 2nd birthday BBQ, which was a lovely day. We had so much luggage to bring back to France, with a full set of duvet covers for the villa, lamps from Egypt and all sorts - Easyjet wanted to charge us £70 for excess luggage, so we ended up wearing three jumpers each and our hand luggage was bursting at the seams with frozen sausage and bacon - lets just say the airport experience was not a relaxing one!!

We then arrived at the villa to a very dry overgrown garden, and a green, algae and leaf-filled pool, so have had a busy week sorting it out for our first guests. But happy to be here, the sun is shining, villa guests happy, and we've found a great new local beach bar - summer has arrived!

Spring has sprung!

It's official - the clocks have just gone forward, the daffodils are out - Spring is here! There's a great optimism in Spring, with the promise of warm sunny days and light evenings ahead. In fact we've had a month of warm sunny days here in Bozel, prompting ski picnics and picnics down by the lake - lovely.

We now only have a few weeks to go before we head to the South of France, and as usual we are tying up loose ends, getting my dent on the car fixed before trying to sell it (any takers?), thinking ahead to rental accommodation for next winter, and closing down phone lines/internet etc - always a favourite task of mine, perhaps I will delegate it to Giles this year! I am looking forward to a few days in Sigale before heading back to the UK for a couple of weeks. But for now, we'll just enjoy the sunshine and our Perudo session this evening!

Birthdays and happy days!

We're on a bit of a social frenzy at the moment here in Bozel - there's something about warm, sunny weather that seems to just make people want to socialise! Last week we managed to rope a bunch of friends into the first ever Pub Quiz being held at a new(ish) hostelry in town. Our team of 4 came second, and if only I hadn't listened to G and stuck by my guns and insisted that yes, Oliver Stone did indeed direct the film 'Natural Born Killers', not Tarantino, then we would have been joint winners! Amazing, I do have a competitive streak in me that normally lies dormant......

It was G's birthday two days ago, and we enjoyed a relaxed champagne picnic by the lake in Bozel followed by pancakes (Shrove Tuesday....) and rose (glug!) at home, followed by torchlit descent and fireworks in Le Praz (vin chaud, hic!), washed down with a few more drinks here in Bozel (end of!). But I think he enjoyed it :-)

I've only just finished washing up after having six for dinner here last night - a lovely relaxed evening with a few rounds of Perudo (sorry Patsy!), great game (also brings out that normally dormant competitive streak.....). And tonight we are dining at Jane's which is a relief as it means I don't have to eat leftovers from last night, or do any more washing up........just hope there's no gaming involved as I'm not sure if my brain can take all this activity!