As I mentioned in my last post, we’re vacationing in Italy and it’s been a great time so far. We’ve spent the last three days in Bergamo, a smallish city an hour northeast of Milan. It’s set on three levels, across seven hills: Citta Bassa (Lower Town), Citta Alta (Upper Town), and the top level:
Winter weather has been pretty extreme just about everywhere this year. Western Europe has had tons of rain and as such, a lot of flooding. Angers has experienced flooding conditions that apparently rival the floods of 1995. In the picture above, the water you see is covering a street which has been impassable for 2-3
It’s been a big ten days for us here in Angers, filled with good times and meaningful wins! We’re grateful for all that’s transpired. First, you may remember that we’ve been studying both the book above and online since September for our written driving test, the first part of getting our French driving licenses. Last
The New Year has arrived and with it, a chance to look back at the exciting Christmas week holiday we spent with one of our children who came to visit us in Angers. It was a fun week and we kept busy, despite it being bitterly cold and each of us getting mildly sick with
The Christmas Market season is upon us and we walked through one of them recently in downtown Angers, complete with a Ferris Wheel, mulled wine and hot cocoa, traditional French foods like tartiflette and crêpes, roasted chestnuts, and a variety of gift items and handmade goods for sale. While not as spectacular as the Christmas
We have so much to be thankful for, living in the lovely Loire Valley in France. We count our blessings in all of these areas: Though we are missing our friends and family in the U.S., we hope that each of you are able to share time, meals, and traditions this week with those you
France changed from daylight savings time this past weekend and for the first time, our evening activities this week have happened in the twilight/dark. Greg snapped this lovely photo of the Cathédrale Saint-Maurice d’Angers on Sunday looking beautiful while the bells tolled on our way to dinner at a friend’s house. This was definitely an
We’ve made it back to Angers from our trip to the SF Bay Area and are looking ahead with excitement to what comes next for us this fall as the seasons change and we seek new opportunities to further integrate with the community and culture of Angers, France. Here’s what we’ve got planned for the
We’ve spent a lot of time in the last couple of weeks prepping our new rental house before we move in. A friend of ours says “if a place looks clean, it may be clean, but if it looks dirty, it’s filthy!” That adage certainly applies to rental houses. This one looked pretty clean, but
Finally, the heat wave that has been smothering western Europe since late May has fizzled and we are being treated to a pleasantly warm (around 75-78F most days) and lovely summer in Angers. This is a city that has many events and exhibitions going on simultaneously and seems to execute on them flawlessly. It’s been