La pluie la pluie!

"The rain, the rain!"

Springtime is, well what I would say, arriving by flood. This is part of the weather that I remember about Bordeaux, getting windy and then having rain that comes in spurts. So it will pour for 20 minutes then it will be sunny, then drizzle and then turn gray for a while. It changes really fast though. For example, this morning it was sunny, so I went for a jog along "les quais" (the water front of the garonne river), it was sunny, and now its pouring outside.
Last night I went to see "Alice in Wonderland" or "Alice au pays des Merveilles". I really enjoyed it, looked a little dorky in my 3-D glasses. Then I caught the last 30 minutes of the final match between Bordeaux and Lyon....which was brutal to watch, since Bordeaux apparently just gave up at the end. Needless to say I didn't stay up to see the team come to their favorite bar, right next to my house to see them.
My clients are taking up a fair amount of time at the moment. I have between 7-8 hours a week and then class, all different ages and levels, starting at age six, and well the oldest I have no idea how old they are. :)
This past weekend, I went outside of Bordeaux to go walking with some friends of mine in the Botanical gardens. There are just starting to be leaves and flowers. Though apparently in May, I have to go back to see their Iris garden. I copied the link to it, which is in French, but there are a few pictures, and a link of where it is.

http://www.bordeaux.fr/ebx/portals/ebx.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pgFicheLieu&classofcontent=lieu&id=853

Thanks so much for all the comments that you have been leaving! I do read them and really enjoy receiving them!!! Please leave more!
Love to everyone! -Sarah

meet the "neigh-bors" as my dad said I should say....

Jeremie and I went on a riding lesson yesterday, which was fun. I ended up on a 17 year old mare, Appaloosa, French mix, who definitely could have cared less about walking. He ended up on a Merens, which is a smaller french horse, typically black in color, but of sturdy build. It was funny because apparently the lady had picked out other horses for us, but I was too tall for the one that she had thought, so I ended up on the old Appaloosa of hers. We had a good time. It was funny because in fact our "one hour" lesson, lasted for more than 2 hours. The time that we spent getting the horses and mounting and doing introduction.




Our neighbor Mr. Panchanee is very nice, he raises New Forest ponies and some horses. So I have been going over in the mornings when he is training his three year olds, who are just starting to get used to being ridden. Most have only been ridden three or four times.
In the photo we see a little New Forest being ridden by the trainer, named Toute Suite. Toute suite is funny because his backside is much much higher than his withers, so the trainer doesn't like riding him since she has the feeling that she is going to go flying off over his head when he stops. Its really funny to look at him and realize how unequal he is, but he'll grow for another year.
And then we have Tatiana, who is quite large, especially by comparison, she measures 1.65m, and is quite fast.




We tried to introduce the dogs to the horses, Texto was really interested in them, but not so much the other way around. Mr Panchanee wanted us to get his horses used to dogs since he doesn't have dogs anymore. So he welcomed the challenge.



At the end I said hello to Twist, who is really quite friendly. :)

les chateaux, les cheaveux, et les choses!

"Castles, horses and more!"


The castle at Nogent-le-Rotrou, which you can see for miles, but to get to is a winding set of little roads through the town that literally surrounds the town. Its impressive how far away you can see if from though. Talk about well situated. Jeremie and walked around it, though part of it is still occupied by people that live there.
The first image you can see the moat that goes around the castle, though there is no water anymore. And then me in the following pictures with my furry friends.





Then for a walk in the countryside with Jeremie's parents and the dogs. The countryside is really really muddy at the moment with flooded paddocks (making it pretty to take pictures with reflections, which I enjoyed), and apparently really amusing for Puja, the younger crazy two year old dog of ours....She apparently saw a bird so she's running after it. She didn't catch any this time though....







On the way back we passed by a local "cathedral", just normal in the middle of a small town. You know, the norm....



I am going to follow with another post directly of our days of horse lessons and hanging out with the neighbor next door.
Much love, Sarah