Caramel AND Chocolate

Wow, those two things have to be my favorite thing about life in France! However, I am currently stuck as to which one I enjoy more! The French chocolate is absolutely amazing and available around every corner - I don't know how we will ever go back to M&M's and Hershey bars.... But, the famous "Breton caramel-Beurre-Salé" is incredible and the likes of which I have never tasted before. I have always like caramel but this is ridiculously good and fairly specific to our region of France. Magnifique!!
Today, was just a crazy day of running around.... I enjoyed a gorgeous morning run along the sea again with perfect weather followed by a quick trip to a friend's house to borrow a few more items for Quincy's ski trip to the Alps. I then picked up all the kids for a lunch at home before dropping them off at school again and running some errands. I had my French lesson all afternoon and finished just in time to pick up the kids again.
I will post a few more pictures from our trip this past weekend just because we took so many beautiful ones and really have nothing to post from today.
A couple of notes from the weekend... 1) the food in France is really just wonderfully good, no matter where you go. We stopped at an oasis on the toll-road on our way home yesterday and just ran into the sandwich shop there to grab a quick lunch for the road. Our quick lunch was fantastic fresh baguette sandwiches made with smoked salmon and herbed cheese, an apple, amazing espresso and a delicious, melt-in-your-mouth apple tart to top off the meal! 6 such meals (no espresso for the kids - don't worry!) cost us about the same as a meal at McDonalds and was enjoyed so much more. 2) Listening to French radio, especially on the weekends is like a constant 80's "flash-back" because they play so many old American songs. It's quite fun but leaves us quite behind on what is current! 3) Hotel front desks are often manned only during regular business hours... If you have a reservation, you are fine, your key is usually left at the front desk in an envelope with your name on it. If you don't have a reservation, you are out of luck. You can check out the same way. We stayed overnight in 2 rooms on Sunday night and because Monday was a holiday as well, we checked in and out without seeing a single employee! We often feel like we moved to 1950, rather than across the ocean.
Tonight, Calvin read me a simple, children's book that was written in English. Instead of reading the English words though, he translated them into French and "read" the French version out loud to me. Pretty impressive!!