Photo of a tree in our front yard. I took the picture before we left on vacation. I imagine the leaves have fallen by now (it snowed here while we were away). I will have a look at things tomorrow morning, when the sun returns.
Bonne Année! Happy New year to all. We have just touched down in France after a 24-hour voyage east. Jean-Marc, the kids, and I were two hundred meters from our driveway when a flurry of butterflies arrived and the feeling in my stomach was like a burst of shimmering light!… that is, if one can feel shimmers and lumière.
J'ai des papillons dans le ventre! I cried to the kids.
Moi aussi, said Max.
We all realized that, unlike in the past, we now had two furry family members who would soon be greeting us returning vacationers. I wonder, do dogs get the butterflies too?
Amicalement,
Kristin
P.S.: the regular edition (sound file, example sentence, vocabulary section… will return on Monday!)
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Welcome Home, Kristin and Jean-Marc!
I am sure you had a royal greeting from your pups..Isn’t it wonderful to be loved like that?!
Happy 2010..May it be healthy, prosperous, and exciting for you all!
Love,
Cerelle
welcome home to France! I so enjoyed seeing you at the farmers market in Phoenix, and meeting Max too! Enjoying reading your book and looking at the beautiful pictures. Have a wonderful, happy, healthy Bonne Annee! Best, Gayle
Alors, it is a New Year and I don’t even know where to post a comment. I am not as pretty as a papillon, but I am just as flighty.
Have not put down roots yet in this New Year. Je suis heureuse that you are all home (isn’t France everyone’s home, or is it
justalways? Paris as Getrude Stein said and as I feel always?) Tres Bonne Annee 2010!!!!! Betty
Bonne Année Kristin and Jean-Marc. I am wishing you all good health, happiness, prosperity and all things wonderful for 2010.
My best, Gina
Welcome home and Bonne Annee! So glad your trip was a safe and joyous one. It’s always good to be home no matter how wonderful the trip. And to be welcomed home by butterflies and puppies – what could be better than that?! 🙂 Bill, where have you been? I’ve missed your comments. Perhaps we’ll all be together again next week. Kristin, get lots of sleep and get ready for a fantastic 2010! Want to join me and my little group of travelers in Greece in October? I lift a toast to you all. Cheers!
Bonne Année Kristin, Jean Marc, Max and Jackie.
We have been discussing how will people say 2010- will it be twenty ten or two thousand ten. What will they be saying in France?
Lastly, I can’t seem to find out how to get to Cinéma Vérité. Help!
Bonne Annee to you all Krisitn. I wish you all good things for 2010.
Your book arrived on New Year’s Eve so I have had some fun dipping in and out reading it. It is lovely and the photos are wonderful. Thanks for the recipes!!! Olive cake here we come… I had some when I was there in July so I am really looking forward to making it.
Enjoy your French homecoming, I wish there was an easy answer for the problem of ‘distance, I can imagine how hard that must be. Skype is a wonderful thing, but don’t quite replace real hugs.
Hug those puppies instead! Take care and keep warm.
warm wishes
Chris
Welcome Home, so glad you all arrived safely.
What a wonderful welcome to have butterflies greet you:)
Happy, Happy New Year to you all!
Debbie in Tennessee
Bonne année à vous tous! May this year be one of your best. Welcome back home, butterflies and all!
Bonne Annee from Easton, Pa. from Louise
We have something in common. My wife and I are recovering from a 24 hour ttrip to Nice where we will be studying French intensively for three weeks. Maybe one year we can visit the farm.
Ma chère Kristin et Jean-Marc ( The gorgeous)!
De mon charmant village de Sutton au QUÉBEC,je vous souhaite à vous et à votre famille une Nouvelle Année de grandes réjouissances et la découverte de bonheurs intenses ! Une caresse pour Braise et (mon préféré) Smokey…
Bise enneigée,
Claudette
Salut Kristin:
I have been a devote of “French Word a Day” for years and now love it even more since you took it over…I live in Phoenix and was at Vincent’s Market Place last Saturday and was anxiously waiting to meet you and say hi, but alas you were way too popular and there was always a group of well-wishers at the desk speaking with you. Posibly on your next visit if you do Vincent’s Market Place again.
Warm wishes to you and your family. Je vous souhaite une Bonne Annee rempli de bonheur.
Dr. Ed Abraham—Phoenix, Arizona
Happy Homecoming. I bet the dogs were happy to see you. Happy New Year to you and your family. Love to all.
Dear Kristin, Bonne Annee to you, J-M, & the kids also. We are celebrating from Sunset Beach NC but most of our greetings are from our wonderful friends in Provence. We are very lucky to have two such beautiful places to call “home”. We will send you Maureen’s special story when we return to Atlanta. Looking forward to sharing time together in May.
All our best wishes to you and your great family for a 2010 that is filled with all the good things you deserve.
Many hugs and kisses,
Lee & Maureen
Hello Kristin,
Some friends & I toasted the New Year with a bottle of Rouge Bleu. (It seemed fitting since we’re visiting France in 2010.)
We marveled at the state of today’s commerce… your wine being sold in our South Minneapolis liquor store. 🙂
I hope this is a good year for you! Can’t wait to see the beautiful France again!
Linda
Welcome home, la famille Espinasse; je vous souhaite une bonne annee! Tonight writing from West Virginia at the Carriage House Inn where more snow is expected and at 9 p.m. it is 18 degrees…brrrr.
Bonne Année Kristin! It’s always nice to be back to home sweet home! I bet Braise and Smokey had butterflies too!
Bonne Annee Kristin and family. Yes, they get butterflies too! I felt the same way earlier this week when I saw my two cats when I returned from spending Christmas in New Jersey with Suzanne. Tiddles was so happy to see us. Bacall forgot her usual routine of giving me the cold shoulder for two days and cuddled up right away.
Margaret in cold North Carolina. The high will be 35f tomorrow. COLD for us southerners!
Look Bill…the lights are on again!!
Welcome home Kristin, Jean Marc, Max and Jackie… not only your gorgeous furry friends await you but also those around you “virtually” everywhere… 🙂
Bonne Annee!!
Bonne Annee and welcome home!! So glad to hear you touched down safely! Here’s to a lovely new year, new triumphs await, new mountains to climb, valleys to cross, and always the love of God to carry us on. 🙂
I hope that you année is also joyeuse, Kristin.
I ordered you new book – it will take time to reach South Africa, I know, but I can’t wait for THOSE papillons!
★happy 2010 à toi aussi★
Happy New Year to you and Jean-Marc from one of his friends here in Denmark (sunshine today in Copenhagen, light snowfall and minus 3 degrees C).
A la prochaine!
Happy New Year to you and all your family, hope it is a really great one for you ☻☻
Am loving your new book, the glossy photos are beautiful and the recipes at the back are a brilliant idea – I have tried two of them already with great success.
As usual your vocabulary lists and expressions are a great help on my slow road of the French language. Bonne année à tous!!
Kristin, I love your new book, and my daughter-in-law was thrilled with the copy I gave her for Christmas. She and our son Carter are going to join us in Provence in May, and she is eager to re-learn a few French mots before she goes.
Hope you are by now happily de retour. Am sure your dogs were all over you and the children.
Une très bonne année à toute la famille!
P.S. Am slowly changing my email address to a gmail account. Please see below.
Butterflies represent transformation. I’m wishing for a transformative New Year! I want to be what God wants me to be, and only through a transformative heart can we know his will.
Happy New Year to all!
My dear Kristi, I am so happy that you are back home safely after the long and tedious journey. It was such a pleasure to be with you and family again. You get smarter and prettier every year. I love your new book and am so proud of you and Jean Marc for your great successes.
Dad in Palm Springs
Une tres bonne annee a vous tous. I am so glad you had a safe and successful trip to the US and are safely home. I know how hard it is to be far from your American family, but you have hundreds of virtual family members from around the world who love and communicate with you several times a week. We love your posts and photos and thank you for sharing your life with us.
Patty
FELIZ AÑO NUEVO! BONNE ANNÉE!
Best wishes for a better 2010!
Besitos,
Andrea @ Austin, TX
Happy New Year Kristin from southwestern Newfoundland where it’s windy and about +5C (41F) right now. I’d love to see a picture of one of those butterflies. All the best in 2010.
Glad you all made it home safely. There is nothing like arriving home after a long trip and greeting your extended family, furry though they may be! I just arrived home (to Tulsa) today after working my last flight. I have hung up my wings and will stay grounded until my next pleasure trip later this month to Germany. Happy New Year to you all!
Happy New Year Kristin!
A friend of mine was on the airplane with you on the way back. Hope our paths cross this year. Take care,
Meredith
I can relate to that feeling. I love coming home to my beagle after being away. It adds to that “Home, Sweet Home” feeling.
My husband and I tried both of the Domaine Rouge-Bleu red wines this past week. We savored them! They were fantastic. We shared one bottle with my in-laws (The Mistral, I think, with the drawing on the label of a vine) They thought it was superbly delicious. The other with mostly Carignan grapes, we kept for ourselves for New Year’s Eve. We enjoyed this in front of our fireplace. We both thought the wine was extremely clean and pure tasting with great flavor. Please share with Jean-Marc. We bought the wines from “Cork and Fork” in Bethesda. The store-owners are a French couple from the Champagne region. They were very nice to us and didn’t look down on my not-perfect French. Best wishes and blessings to your family in 2010.
Welcome home, to Ste Cecile-les-Vignes and to all of us here at French Word-a-Day!
I love the expression des papillons dans le ventre! As someone who makes a lot of decisions based on the state of those butterflies, I can relate. I had the same feeling last night(but not the good butterflies), facing another Monday at work after several days off for the New Year’s holiday.
Thanks for putting a smile on my face.
Amicalement,
Adele
Does anyone know how to translate this statement in cajun french? You put a big smile on my face and I can’t wait until I see you again !