We arrived in France yesterday morning after a red-eye flight from New York.  The baby was amazing on the flight!  Fortunately for us (and less fortunately for Delta), the flight was pretty empty because of bad weather and missed connections.  The flight team was amazing and immediately re-assigned the baby and I to a full row so he managed to sprawl out while I regarded him for the rest of the journey.  I think I did manage to catch a little doze but honestly I was just so excited to get here and get our first glimpse of France.  The morning light was peeking through the window and when I opened the shade, we were soaring over the brightest blue sea with boats jetting across the water; we didn’t see land until we were nearly down — it was mesmerizing.  We could see rows and rows of burnt orange brown and green palm trees on the way to the gate.

We are staying at our family home in the South.  My late Grandmother bought it several years ago and my family has been coming here for many summers.  It’s the most fun when we’re all here together but this time Will and I are here with our son and have invited friends to come stay.   We usually come later in the summer; I have never been here in May and early June.  The terrace is overflowing with the most beautiful roses and nearly ripe lemons — I was amazed, this might be the most beautiful I have ever seen it. Our first glimpse of France this year was simply gorgeous.

The smell of the house reminds me so much of my Grandmother and childhood summers here.  It is always quite emotional to come back. I wish I could give these photographs of the house in bloom to her; she was a master of aesthetics and I know that she would have thought yesterday was a little slice of heaven.  The baby crawled all around the terrace, ate ripe strawberries from the market, and we had a little too much rosé with the sun on our back.

I include this last photo of the baby only because I find it so amusing — we all looked a bit like this after our day of travel! xx