Halfway through some pretty amazing holidays, with a civilization stop in Marseille. Funky as usual.

Summer vacation has started! I am on my low-budget high-speed train OUIGO to pull off another stunt: fetching Maximilian on the go at our stop in Lyon, where Myriam will drop him off. Not yet sure whether this will work, but it has to. Grey zone for sure. But avoiding Max to travel back to Paris from this climbing week in the Alps. Once succeeded we’ll have one more hour on the train together to meet the girls in Avignon, where our rental car is already waiting for us. The girls are on a direct train, and even got Max’ and my free seats next to them. Then one week of Mont Ventoux, and another on Porquerolles. No computer, just this bloody phone.

Fully emerged in summer, my favourite time of the year! Also because the Tour de France is on, and exciting as usual. In around two weeks I’ll be cheering alongside the road up infamous Mont Ventoux, until then I’ll be on France.TV to follow the party. The big kids are gone and only the baby requires our care, allowing for a big weekend at the cottage starting on Friday.

July 4th, Independance Day! I just returned from a nice dinner at Vincelottes with my American friends David, Kelsey, Verena and Russel, who returned once again to Mailly for some days in the country. I joined them for half a day and will be returning to Pantin tomorrow, but it was worth it! The rainwater recovery is connected and working like a charm, the irrigation system configured and working, and the greenhouse is basically done (thanks for Flo, who set the entire structure up last weekend with the help of Max and myself). I’ll be back next week with Mathilde and Effi to stay longer, and enjoy even more my favorite place.

First sunburn of the year! A beautifully hot weekend at the cottage with quite some rain-water-recovery-work plus a full kayak loop with Effi along our favorite water route overexposed me to this ultraviolet radiation. Alongside my poor skin it hopefully radiated my long-COVID-or-whatsoever away, I’m struggling since the beginning of May with health issues. Everything but decent breathing is back to normal, or almost. I even managed to go for a slow jog last week, hopefully to be repeated this week. The next weekend will be cottage again, this time I’ll bring Florian and the kids to tackle the setup of the garden greenhouse, install the new irrigation system and connect it to the rain water pipes. Monday morning nine fifty, it’s time to start working.