More Hotel California than Next Door

More Hotel California than Next Door

Sitting on the balcony in the sunshine, watching the swallows swooping around and listening to the crickets doesn’t get any easier after nearly 3 weeks, but I’m struggling womanfully on.

It’s been a very busy few days. Our temporary alpine home has received many guests, all of whom are, remarkably, still with us.

We extended our taxi service trip to Annecy at the weekend with a drive up to the Col de la Forclaz, not only for the breathtaking views of Lake Annecy, but also the tradition of crêpes from the wee hut at the top. Because who doesn’t need more cheese after a raclette?

Hangin’ around

It’s a bit of a hairy drive up on very narrow, very twisty roads – but it’s worth it.

Où est ma crêpe?

Our son Joe and his girlfriend were the first to arrive, after a few days in Paris celebrating Joe’s 21st. They were very indulgent of an overexcited me – I haven’t seen them for nearly 3 weeks so I may have been overly effusive in my welcome.

Happy talkin’, talkin’, happy talk

Duly tolerated, we headed back to Les Gets, to meet up with some friends who had arrived in our absence – and so began the week where this is the first time I’ve had the chance to sit down and write anything.

I have a lot of wonderful people in my life but there are two women in particular who rock my world – and they’ve both been here this week. We all live in different European countries but by some extraordinary leaps of imagination, managed to land here at the same time. We’ve walked, run, talked, cried, laughed and everything in between. I’ve no idea when I’ll get to see them again and I’m so thankful we’ve had this piece of suspended reality to reconnect and sort the world out.

Tomorrow sees the return of the Annecy Taxi Service as we chuck one lot out to make way for the next lot of guests. Life is pretty good just now.