my birthday and following weekend

Recently I celebrated my 24th birthday with a few friends at my place. I played a small trick on them because I opened a wine from Oregon, which I then asked them to identify (I had hid the bottle), and since it doesn't taste at all or look like a pinot noir from France, they had a little bit of a hard time guessing it. It was fun.

They all made fun of my very "American" birthday cake, the French don't use as much frosting as we do, and if they do it is more icing not so much frosting.

The following weekend, we headed to Limoges to go to a suprise party for a friend of mine. We went walking with another friend of ours, Marion who lives in Limoges now.

Puja as you can see below went swimming and then was too tired to climb out, but she managed to get out of the stinky pond water eventually. The drive back was to put it nicely potent with the two of them....haha.
I absolutely loved the forests around Limoges. Incredibly pretty.
Us watching Puja go fetch her stick in the water.
After our weekend away, we came back to Bordeaux and since then I have been taking more exams and preparing for starting my internship this summer.

finals

This week is finals week for me. French style exams are incredibly mean, I can't think of another word for it at the moment, but its all about how much memorization you can do and then write it all down in two hours. I am happy and taking the time to write in my blog because I am just glad to be finished with my laboratory final which was this afternoon. I am happy because I managed to get through all of my manipulation steps and come out with an answer that seems to actually be accurate.

I also wanted to post the link for our wedding website on the blog, so that everyone is sure to have it and be able to look at those photos and information.

https://sites.google.com/site/sarahjeremiewedding/

Much love, Sarah

last set of pictures

Giverny!!! Our last few days we went to Paris and decided to go to Giverny, because the Tulips are still in bloom. It was perfect timing really.

You can just make us out on the bridge that Monet used for inspiration.


Showing off our loot at Place Vendome.

GIANT Lindt chocolate bunnies for easter. We were thinking of David.
My mom in front of PRINTEMPS department store.

Some photos from Normandie and then to Bordeaux

At the Chateau Nogent le Retrou.
Having a coffee at the Manoir Courboyer, with our furry little friends at our feet seeing if we didn't drop a single crumb.....
Jeremie and me.
One of our dinners in Bordeaux, the only photo of all three of us!
Our passover seder at our home in Bordeaux.
Visit to the Bassin D'Arcachon and the Dunes de Pilat.

Spring Break!

Moms visit to France for my spring break.

So actually these three photos should go after our trip to Fontainbleu, but thats ok. We went briefly to Chartres, on our way to Normandie, the driver needed a "cafe" after all the driving.

So as some of you are aware my mom did come for a visit to coincide with my week of vacation for spring. We went to pick her up in Paris and then decided to see Fontainebleu, as soon as she got off the plane. The photo above is us on the stairs in front of the chateau, the little red dot is my red scarf, we look so tiny!!
If you were to ask a French person (for example Jeremie) he would tell you all about the Forest of Fontainebleu and would forget to mention the castle. This is around back of the castle where they have amazing grounds and lots of fountains.

The castle in itself is quite interesting because much of it was built at different periods and then redecorated according to the changing styles of the eras, so it is kind of a royal "mix" of to put it simply "stuff".

A photo walking into the front courtyard, we are staring directly into the sun, so my eyes are closed.
No we didn't just magically teleport to Versailles, but close!!! This was built by Francois I, to imitate the hall of mirrors at Versailles. It was originally a covered walkway from his quarters to the church, but he decided that he didn't like walking outside to get to church everyday. Francois I used to carry the keys to the passageway himself so that only he could access it.

Jeremie has his listening device telling all the details up to his ear.

the rest of the kitchen photos! :)

My view of Jeremie from the balcony!
The other side of the kitchen (side with the front door, just right of the closest cupboard. You see Puja guarding the wine locker.
Kajol at my feet soaking up her moment in the sun.
Puja sleeping with the other side of the kitchen, with our new stove top and ventilation. It heats up things like you wouldn't believe!

We are starting to get more settled in, it feels good to have all of our food supplies in the kitchen, so we don't make trips back and forth from different parts of the apartment where we had stored food, pots or pans.

The past few days have been really warm, actually reaching highs hotter than Santa Monica! Take that California! We are having a really early spring, but we have already had one thunder storm so far, so we are hoping that it lasts!

I am excited to see my mom who arrives the 17th in paris!!!

apt updates

Sorry about the delay, but we have been just painting painting and painting.....This is so far what the kitchen looks like. The black tile on the wall is where the stove will go (electric one set in) with a ventilation above. I managed to repaint (with a little help from a friend of mine, who paints for a living) the ceiling and the walls of the kitchen before they starting installing so at least it is done. This weekend I got the primer coat and ceilings of the bathroom done.

The door for the bathroom, a sliding door, very modern. Which was difficult to install because they had the cut the frame of the bathroom door because apparently the other doorway is not staight, so it was always an inch open. All is well....
The younger dog, Puja, was terrified of the vacuum cleaner so she crawled into the old dog Kajols bed for comfort. But it is still very cute.
Much love, Sarah