inspirational Marie Motais weekend

tears - a familiar landscape,

comforted by moss

woken up by ivy.

shifting shapes

coming and going, left and right -

irresolvable.

all together.

burning bright.

saying yes.

one more breath of sea air: Beer

On the last leg of my Fiat 500 itinerary, that had taken me from Bath to Bristol to Pembroke to Rhos-y-meirch (Welsh borders,) I drove to Colyton (Devon), to see my cousin Wigs. We made a short outing to Beer, where I had been expecting to see the aftermath of the recent destructive weather. But all was calm, with fishermen painting their boats, café owners setting up shop and tidy rows of beach huts anticipating the coming season.

sunny Rhos-y-meirch

Alice and Mick assured me that they had been going stir-crazy with the full-on rain in recent weeks. So I guess the idyllic couple of days I spent at Rhos-y-meirch market garden gave a completely false impression of the truly rural life:

 

planting broad beans - Alice and Mick's palace in the background

a long weekend by the sea: Stackpole

What a treat this was - wild, windswept cliffs and beaches, the company of my nearest and dearest (we were Buff short of the original-nuclear-family picnic), the comfort and superb location of a National Trust cottage, and enough sunshine to remind Juan how stunning the UK can be...

our cottage - the building on the left

On our first evening Juan and I discovered gorgeous Barafundle beach:

The next day we explored Angle and the nearby bay:

the fog coming and going...

In the afternoon Mum, Dad and Phil arrived and we revisited Barafundle in similar, now-you-see-it-now-you-don't conditions...

stone-collecting at Stackpole Quay

what on earth...? 

By the time we'd walked down to the beach the fog had dispersed but the sea was UNBELIEVABLY cold...

During the next two days we did a wonderful walk, taking in the Bosherston lakes...

Gowan head...

... returning via what is now my ultimate beach, Broadhaven:

It can't get better than this.

We made a pilgrimage to St David's, of special significance for Juan and I - it's where we decided to get hitched, in 1998.

At the restaurant where we had lunch I naughtily asked the waitress what blanc-bait was. Her reply - that it was posh, because they were a "premium" restaurant - provoked unseemly mirth.

There was just time for a sprint to St Davids head - before octogenarian energies flagged:

On our last morning Juan and I nipped back to Broadhaven for some final pix, chasing tantalising rays of sun...

So thanks to you all for a superlative few days. Who's in for next spring/summer?

Brit in underwear in piste café

This was 2 weeks ago - a weirdly warm day at the Grand Serre, when a ski jacket was definitely de trop.

In the interim (when we've been in the UK) it's been 26 degrees in Grenoble. On our return we caught a primrose explosion, and magnolia/prunus blossom - now dropping like confetti as rain moves in...

bureaucracy gone mad?

Today I finally declared myself as an auto-entrepreneur - the fiscal régime introduced a few years ago to reduce the volume of black-market work (rife in France because of the high charges sociaux and tax).

Apart from tying myself in knots filling in the online form, I was richly entertained by the way jobs are categorised. This is just a third of the job options for "caring for animals":

MONITEUR D'EQUITATION SANS FOURNITURE DE CAVALERIE

NI D'INSTALLATION EQUESTRE

MUSHER PROFESSIONNEL

OSTEOPATHE POUR ANIMAUX

PALEFRENIER - SOIGNEUR

PAREUR EQUIN, PEDICURE (EQUIN, BOVIN,…)

PRISE EN PENSION PURE DE CHEVAUX

PROMENADE D'ANIMAUX DE COMPAGNIE

PSYCHOTERAPEUTE EQUIN

REIKI POUR ANIMAUX

SERVICES FUNERAIRES POUR ANIMAUX

SHIATSU POUR ANIMAUX

TAXI ANIMALIER

TAXIDERMISTE

TOILETTEUR D'ANIMAUX DE COMPAGNIE

What country has shiatsu listed for horses and not for PEOPLE! Note: there is also equine psychotherapy (of course, we're big on that - it's a stressful country, by gad), and reiki. And I love that taxidermy is seen as a "caring" role.

In another part of the job listing I found nettoyage d'hélicopteurs, esoterisme (how does one make a living from that?!), SORCIER (!!) and - my favourite - SPEED DATING!!!! So... Qu'est-ce que vous faites? Moi? 

Eh ben, je suis speed dater.

What can one say - except Vive la France...

And it's time for a break - looking forward to going home next week...

Jura snow-shoe walk

After another intense week with linear equations, recurring decimals and graphs I somehow arrived at Yverdon with supper, snow shoes, bedding...

We had a successful time on Saturday making the flat a bit more homey (including a lovely little cupboard bought from the flea market on the edge of Lausanne - and if you wanted outsize black bras this was the place to be!).

Back at the flat we both did some proof checking, Juan helping me out (!). And then, thank goodness, got outside on Sunday - to the Col de Machairuz, in the Jura. Out of form, we huffed and puffed along a horizontal path that was curiously tiring...

 

--- so we were happy to tumble on a little refuge situated in what we learned is the coldest recorded spot in the Jura (minus 40 is not unusual). A garulous and charming old codger made us some packet soup and tea (ah, the Swiss and soup - see earlier blog on the subject). The stove was barely needed in the unseasonably hot temperatures and we were quickly stripped to our underwear...