La dolce vita

When I spoke about my European break, a lot of my friends from New York asked me to show them pictures when I be back, so for once this post will be in English ! 

As usual I started my holidays in the northern part of France. As Félix and I lived in Paris for a while we have a lot of friends we want to visit there every year. Furthermore, our parents live in a small city, called Nogent-sur-Oise, 40 miles northern from Paris, and most of our friends from middle school and high school still live around. Finally, my grand mothers live in le Nord (yes the North is the name of a State in France), near Lille. So you can imagine how important it is for me to go to this region.

Le Vieux-Lille

Every time we go back there, it is crazy how it is so easy to find back our old life. For me, the biggest difference between NYC and Paris is how NYC is always changing and how "Paris will always be Paris". Every time we come back it is like we never left. The city doesn't change much, the taste of the good fresh baguette from our bakery is still as delicious, the wines are still incredibly cheap, and more important, our families and friends are always here, and we always spend a wonderful time there.

After 10 days in "Les Hauts de France", we went south to the beautiful city of Biarritz, in the French Basque Country. Félix' family has a gigantic house there, he spent all his summers there and he cannot imagine not going once in a year. So wherever we live, we always have spent at least a few days in a year there. Biarritz became famous since Eugenie, Napoleon III's wife, decided to have her own castle there. After that, a lot of rich nobles from all Europe came to enjoy the good climate, the local food and the ocean.

As usual, we had a wonderful time there, enjoying the ocean waves, the yummy local food (especially sheep cheese with black cherry jam), our friends who came with us, and Félix' family.

Then, we stopped shortly in Paris to watch France losing the Europe soccer championship :-( and to take a flight to Florence.

We spent a week with my parents, my 2 sisters and 3 of my nephews in the middle of the Tuscan mountains, in Pratovecchio. It was splendid !

In this region, we visited medieval castles and cities, walk around in the largest Italian forest, spend a lot of time in our residence swimming pool and again enjoy the local food and wine ( I really need to run a lot when I come back ! ). I was so happy to spend so much quality time with my family. I miss them already...

The beautiful view from our gusthouse

We also enjoyed Florence where we were invited for our friends Ayman and Daphné's wedding. And yes, an Italian wedding in Florence is as good, beautiful and delicious as it sounds !

At this point, Felix had to go back to the US and I follow my trip in France visiting good friends. I choose to take the train for the rest of my peregrinations. 

First, I went north from Florence to Lausanne, Switzerland, where I could take a boat who brought me to Evian (yes the fancy water come from there) crossing the Lac Léman. This trip was sooo nice ! Every time I looked around, the landscape was amazing as you can see :

After a few days, enjoying the calm and quietness from the Alps with my friend Marie, I boarded another train to reach the city of Lyon.
Lyon is one of the most important city in France. My friends Stéphanie and Pierre who live there love the good quality of life you can have in this charming city. Furthermore, a very good surprise was waiting for me : Estelle, my best friend from middle school with Stephanie was also coming. The three of us were reunited like when we were 14 !

Then, I took another and a bus to visit my friend Maiwenn in a region named l'Aveyron. It was so peaceful and calm. I mostly spent my days eating, swimming, eating, swimming, eating again and sleeping. I usually don't do that during my holidays, but sometimes it can be nice !

Before I took the train to go back to the northern part of France, we stopped at Soulage museum. I did not know before this trip that Soulage is today the most famous living French artist and he come from the city of Rodez in the Aveyron where he choose to have his museum.

Finally I came back to my parents home and enjoyed a few more days with my family and friends.

I hoped you liked this post in English !

Le ciel, les oiseaux et ma mère

Long silence sur le blog, c'est normal, je rentre tout juste de France (et de Californie mais ce sera pour le prochain post) où j'ai passé un petit peu plus d'un mois entre famille, amis et quelques visites.

Pour rentrer, nous avons testé la compagnie irlandaise aer lingus, plutôt pas mal pour du low cost, et en avons profité pour faire une escale de 8 heures à Dublin que nous avons visité un peu fatigués mais très contents de cette escale charmante.

A l'arrivée, nos amis de toujours nous avaient déjà préparé une soirée très sympa pour notre retour. C'est fou comme avec les vrais amis, tu as beau ne pas les avoir vus depuis 6 mois, quand on se retrouve c'est comme si on ne s'étaient jamais quitté.

Après une semaine entre Paris, la Picardie et le Nord, nous prenons la voiture pour rejoindre Biarritz la belle. Au programme : plage, famille, amis, surf (j'ai ENFIN pris mes premiers cours), mets de choix, bon vins et encore de la plage ! Encore merci à la famille de Félix de nous avoir laissé la grande maison familiale.

Si, si, c'est bien moi debout sur ce surf !

Ensuite, direction Saint Jean Pied de Port dans les montagnes Basques pour de magnifiques randonnées champêtres et de montagnes. Je recommande particulièrement les gorges de Kakueta ! Spectacle naturel magnifique qui m'a fait pensé au Mexique. Mais nous nous sommes aussi promenés dans la forêt d'Iraty, sur les collines d'une ferme de porcs Basques aux Aldudeset autour de Saint Jean Pied de Port.

Sarah à Saint Jean Pied de Port

Foret d'Iraty

Passerelle d'Holzarte

Gorges de Kakueta

Aldudes

Ces vacances au bercail m'ont apporté beaucoup d'émotions ! Je suis très heureuse d'avoir pu passer du temps avec ma famille et pas mal de mes amis et j'espère que je pourrai voir ceux que je n'ai pas vu la prochaine fois. A l'aéroport j'étais triste de vous quitter mais aussi heureuse de retrouver Félix et mon chez moi qui est vraiment de l'autre côté de l'Atlantique pour l'instant.