Our Last Fun Day in France

We were lucky enough to spend our last day of fun in France with Debbie, Reed, and their granddaughters - Sophie & Isabelle.

We spent the day in one of our favorite places in France - Roquebrun.

Thank you, so much, Debb & Reed for helping us out the last week (not to mention all the countless other times!). Summer evenings in your garden are priceless memories.

Love to all!!

I'll let the pictures do the talking for me this time...

Sophie


Max
Josey


Isabelle
Random Fun . . .

Merci a Sophie!

Although it has a taken me several weeks to post this, it is not due to a lack of desire!

I want to thank Sophie, from the bottom of my heart, for making our last year in Bouzigues so much fun.

My regular readers know who Sophie is. She is our young friend (now more like the little sister I never had) who spent time with us each week. She took us fun places, she cooked us amazing food, she taught us all about life in the village of Bouzigues, she entertained us with stories, she helped us learn more French . . . She is the best!

Chère Sophie,
Je tu remercie beaucoup pour faire partie de notre famille. Tu nous manquez terriblement. S'il te plaît viens nous rendre visite bientôt. Tu peux rester aussi longtemps que tu souhaites!
Le plus gros bisous dans le monde!

Our last week in Bouzigues, we finally got to meet Sophie's entourage! Her fiancé, Hamza, her fabulous parents Gerard and Helene, and her best friend, Jessica. We hope to see them all again for a visit next summer.

Love to all!!

Alizée and Ondine

Another heartbreaking farewell . . .

During our last year in Bouzigues, we have had the great fortune to live in the center of the village in a maison de pêcheur (a uniquely French fisherman's house).

Our greatest joy in living in the center of the village has been the fact that Max and Josey can play outside, unsupervised, for hours at a time. They have taken full advantage of that spectacular gift, and their pleasure in playing outside has been in great part due to Alizée.

Alizée means tradewind, and she truly did blow into our lives like a breathtaking wind, leaving pure delight in her wake.

She is the most darling child I've known, besides my own (of course), and I'm so sad to see her go.

Her family is leaving Bouzigues, too, and Alizée left one week before us.

Yes, overall, that makes it easier for Max and Josey to leave Bouzigues. However, it was a heartbreaking farewell.

Max and Josey adore, absolutely adore, Alizée and her wonderful sister Ondine. Their friendship has been a gift, and I know all four children will remember one another for the rest of their lives.

Goodbyes are so bittersweet. I'm crying right now because I am so grateful for having Alizée and Ondine in our lives, but it's so sad that it's over.

I know we will keep in touch, and I hope to see them both many times in the future.

I leave the rest to pictures.

Love to all!

Farewell Party Chez Sabrina

I am very sad to say that our time in France is almost at an end. Early Friday morning, July 16, we will drive away from our home in Bouzigues, on our way to our new home in Santa Cruz.

We are sad to end our Bouzigaud adventure, and we are very sad to leave our friends.

In a fabulous farewell party yesterday, we said goodbye to some of our favorite people in Bouzigues.

Merci mille fois to Sabrina, who has been a wonderful, sweet, considerate, and thoughtful friend to us for 2 years. Sabrina hosted the party at her house with Cyrielle, another awesome friend who we will sorely miss.

It was a perfect day, with perfect friends and perfect food. I am very grateful to Sabrina, Cyrielle, Franck, and Laurent for making our farewell so memorable. We will miss them so much.

Sabrina & Cyrielle made us the most awesome souvenirs!! Check out the great artwork (I hope you can see it).
They captured some great memories: camel riding in Morocco, Dado (a.k.a. Miko) surfing a wave in Biarritz, Josey sailing in an Optimiste sailboat, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the French flag & the American flag - just to name a few. Each of us also received personalized souvenir t-shirts! I don't have pictures of my cool shirt or Mike's yet, but they are spectacular.



Sabrina et Cyrielle,
On va nous manquer de passer du temps devant l'école, de rire de l'histoire choquante. Vous êtes merveilleux amis, et nous sommes vraiment reconnaissants pour votre amitié.

Et merci beaucoup pour la grande fête et les souvenirs parfaits!! Nous aimons nos t-shirts et panneau!

Vous allez nous manquer beaucoup.

Jusqu'à la prochaine fois. Gros bisous et beaucoup d'amour,
Gayle, Mike, Max & Josey

P.S. Et encore, je parle et ecris comme une vache espagnole!

And now, to show everyone what a wonderful time we had . . .




Oh my, it's going to be a brutally sad last few days in this amazing place.

Love to all

Birthday Time of Year

We have had a lot to celebrate recently!

In May, Daniel had a birthday and so did Grandpa Dude. Of course, the very last day of May is reserved for . . . Josey. Yay! She is 11 years old. Can you believe it?

And speaking of hard to believe birthdays . . . Alex turned 16 on June 5th. My little girl has turned Sweet 16. I can barely believe it.

I'm waiting for Alex to send me pictures. The last time I posted pictures of her without her permission, and she was not (let me repeat, NOT) happy. I thought they were great pictures, too. Alas, she doesn't like my taste in clothes either.

As for Josey, her birthday was wonderful. She brought homemade chocolate chip cookies and Coke to school - a truly American goute (that's snack in French) to celebrate. At home, she tried to blow out a sparkler in a HoHo (thanks, Grom & Dude!), then she unwrapped presents.

This last weekend, she had a birthday party at Fantasy Park Adventure, home of bounce houses, trampolines, limbo sticks, and general fun, fun, fun.




Her birthday present from me & Mike is sailing lessons! As part of the school curriculum this year, her class has sailing lessons in l'etang. Thus, they walk 3 minutes down to the port, prepare their little 2-person sailboats, and sail for 3 hours every Thursday. How cool is that?!





Here are some great shots of her school sailing lessons. Amazing!



In the shot above, Josey is in the boat with the white sail on the left.

She was having so much fun at school that when the Yacht Club de Bouzigues flyer arrived, we signed her up for lessons. Now, every Wed & Sat afternoons, she sails for 2-3 hours with up to 5-6 other children. Her first lesson was completely private because she was the only child there!

She absolutely loves it. She told us, "This is the most fun thing I've done in France yet!"

Mike and I observed that she (of course) has selected the most expensive sport on the entire planet to be her personal favorite.

It may be difficult to tell, but that's Josey in the little white sail boat - kickin' back & sailing. All alone!



And here's a group photo in front of the oyster farms.


Love to all!!