La Vie Est Belle

Who would miss blogging during the 20-day retreat from a stresssful working world? When you're in the middle of a total relaxation - unwinding and recharging: catching rays while building sandcastles, playing kites during windy days, devouring moules-frites (mussels and chips) or just have a sinful ice-cream snack on the terrace of a seaside restaurant, enjoying the flavor and fun of barbecue grilling, barefooted gathering cockles and mussels at low tide, just taking advantage of the sunny though sometimes rainy - but by and large an enjoyable and anxiety-free holiday? Well, I wouldn't and I really didn't miss it at all! No deadlines, no commitments, no e-mail checkings, no reminders of work at work, just merely spending a tranquil and quality fun time with the family. Now that was a real vacation!

And oh, there was just one thing I really missed during this exciting yet serene family getaway ... a book. The sixth book or the tome 6 of JKRowling's HP series, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince". We left a few days before its midnight release party (which was held last July 15), so obviously, I wasn't able to acquire one. I and son Koko were at the WHSmith, a British bookshop in Paris, during the release parties of HP tomes 4 and 5. But this year, since my husband couldn't really choose when to take his vacation due to workloads, we had no choice but to take it a week earlier. So my husband, in a sort of way, pulled the rug out from under our plan of being there for the tome 6's release party. Well, despite extreme search for this book on the Normande and Breton coasts, I seemed to have no luck, I didn't find one. So, I just promised myself to come by it in any way necessary once we get home. Oh oui, I found HP books to be great literature. My confession, I'm as much of a Harry Potter fanatic as anybody else and I'm not ashamed to admit that this series tops the list of my favorite books!

We got back home last Saturday and the first thing I said to my husband this morning was not "bonjour", but instead "s'il te plait ... mon 'Arry", haha! Since there is no bookshop where we live that sells English-language books, and that fortunately he works in Paris, I told him to get to WHSmith or Brentano's (another British bookstore) first before showing his face to his boss otherwise he'll get stuck with him and the idea of buying my HP book will be shelved. When he arrived home from work today, even before taking off his full-face crash helmet, he handed me the book. Good grief, My Harry! Enfin! I just couldn't hide it, I was smiling ear to ear.

What more can I ask for? We just had the best vacation ever, and tonight, feeling completely filled with excitement, I'll immerse myself in the magical tales (that may be written for children but also a good read for adults) and be transported once again into another world. Good thing of having no internet during the vacation, stumbling into a spoiler page could be possible, tsk tsk.

La vie est belle (life is beautiful), eh? Ah, well ... sometimes.



The chalet we rented

Cléms and Koko on their way to fetch water essential for their sandcastle
(as the sand was too dry and impossible to work with). Being careful not to
be totally exposed to so much scorching sun, hats and t-shirts were also
indispensable.

She's been posing like this lately, Japanese style, eh? When I asked her where she'd seen this, she said "can't remember!"

The rain didn't succeed to put us in a bad mood. Cléms with papa.

Koko, who suddenly turned timid and not really wanting this picture taken, oh well...

The Mont-St. Michel in Bretagne.

Building castles in the air...
You think I'm letting the cat out of the bag? No, I don't own those love handles. But I guess I don't mind if they were mine (I just won't pose like this, don't wanna make myself look like a sex symbol you know, hehe).