la plage!

Just a few photos from the beach the other day. We have on dog that cant get enough of playing fetch, I think she drank have the ocean that day, she played fetch up current through the waves for hours upon hours. The other dog we carried into the ocean and she would freak out and swim ashore, but she can swim. It was all in all a great day, we are going back tommorrow.
Much love, Sarah

Lille

This was right after I got back from my visit to California, but I forgot to put up this photo of me when I was visiting Lille. Lille is a city (the Detroit of France, kind of, they have a stable population and some of the wealthiest communities in France, with the highest rate of unemployment.) It's as it Detroit bordered on Beverley Hills. It's an interesting city to have visited, but not the first place I would go back too.
The reason I went to Lille, is because the oral exams that Jeremie has the honor of giving (to select the future English teachers of France) is always in Lille for a month in July. He grades their written exams in March, and then they select the top to pass the orals and from there they choose the top to teach English. I was there on the last two days that he was there, to visit and see where he spends a month each summer. Love Sarah

The finish line photos!

Since we were at the finish line, they had activities set up, for example, there was a race of 8-10 year olds, they bike the last km and the winner gets to ride with all the other kids that had won on the Champs Elysees in Paris. We all got to see all of the floats from all the sponsors. This was the LCL float, the sponsor of the yellow jersey.



The two sprinters that were racing to the line, the second one is the winner of the stage for the day, Mark Cavendish (a brit on the HTC team). They go sooo incredibly fast, it's over before you know it.


This photo is of Andy Shleck in the white jersey for the best young rider.


So after they cross the finish line, the crowd immediately swarms to try and see the podium, which I really couldn't see, my pictures are horrible. The funniest part is that Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz were present, they apparently rode along in one of the cars for this stage, and then they helped present the yellow jersey to Contador. After all of the riders are escorted to their buses, which happens really quickly, but I still managed to get Jeremie's photo in front of the Bbox car (Bbox is a French telecommunications company, the first that offered internet, cable, phone and cell phone all in one package). I got to see Charteau (the polka dot jersey get into this bus, but with the reflexion it didn't come out, but he's eating right in the front of the bus behind Jeremie.



Us in our really cute skoda hats! They give away so many types of hats, these were some of the good ones!





Stay tuned for even more bike stuff!! :)

"Et les echappees!"

Translation: The GETAWAY!
The morning of the tour de france arrival in Bordeaux!
This morning Jeremie and I bike the tour route into Bordeaux (with all the French yelling at us "your a little early, you must be the breakaway") It was really cute. The first is of the 1km away point, and then you get into what I would say the really pretty part of Bordeaux. It was a lot of fun to ride without CARS!!! But you will notice that its cobble stones! Oh the joy!

After we went home and changed and came back to save spots to watch the arrival of the tour in the late afternoon, which will be the next post.







They wouldn't let me ride under the finish line for some reason, as the French say "it is not possible", but I still took my photo riding next to it. At this point of all a sudden there was a down pour of rain, but you can't really tell!




Tomorrow they leave FROM Bordeaux, so there will be many more photos of us on bikes! Much love, Sarah

And here we go again!

My visit home was really lovely, such a good time spent seeing as many family and friends as I could, there is really never enough time, but I will be coming home for the holidays in December, which is good news.
Speaking of good news I have to announce my engagement to my boyfriend, now fiancé of three years. He is such a romantic to have flown across the ocean to surprise me to ask me to marry him. We are full swing to figure out when (though the where will be, yes, in the states).
My flight back to Europe was uneventful, I slept, from June gloom of Santa Monica, I went to the heat wave of Europe.
After a day at our apartment, I went to Lille, a city in the waaaaay north of France, where Jeremie has spent a month for the past 3 years selecting future English teachers for France, an exam called the CAPES. After his last day, we took the train to one of our favorite places on earth, Bretoncelles, to see his grandfather, his parents and our two doggies!
They surprised us with a lovely "happy engagement" cake with champagne.







We go back to Bordeaux tomorrow because the TOUR DE FRANCE, is arriving in Bordeaux the 23rd of July (Happy Birthday to my Mom), so in her honor, the French are having the bike race go right in front of my window twice! I am posting the link to the map I found online which is really cool! The arrive the 23rd in Bordeaux and the next day they have the time trials which leave from Bordeaux to Pauillac. I am really really excited to ride around when they roads will all be blocked and ride under the finish!
Love to all!

http://www.infotbc.com/sites/default/files/u9/TourdeFrance_itineraire.pdf

PS Clicking on the link right above you will see that the first day outlined shows that they end at Quinconces, which is a large square that I can see from my window. The next day they start from the same location and do a circle and then go near TOURNY, which is my street. :)

travel plans

This time the travel plans lead me somewhat Western bound, to CALIFORNIA! I am happy to announce that I will arrive in LAX June 9th and I will be leaving LAX July 7th.

The other day Jeremie and I found out about a really cool program in Bordeaux. It's a car sharing program called "AUTOCOOL". There are about 450 people that already are part of it in Bordeaux and Toulouse. Its like the program that we have in Bordeaux for bikes, you swipe a card and can take a bike.
This program, you reserve the car (there are lots all over, and different sizes, so if your moving you can reserve a larger model), once you reserve, starting at that time you go and swipe your access card on the outside to open the car. The keys are in the dashboard and the best part is that it has a reserved parking spot, with a parking pass for around Bordeaux. So if we take the car to a friends place, we don't pay parking either. The price includes gas, so if it's on empty there is a gas card. This program is run by a nonprofit, but now the Bordeaux local government supports it, so they provide the parking spots and the parking passes. This weekend we are taking the car to go drive to the beach. In other words more photos to come!
Much love, Sarah

just a few other photos

Last night there was supposed to be a lot of rain, it had been cloudy all day, and all of a sudden there was sun when we were sitting in the living room. It was really pretty, you could see the sun's outline on the buildings across the way. I decided to take a picture of it, to show you guys.
Much love, Sarah