COTIGNAC, France

Quick visit with Rob and Cricri !!!

We love you guys.

Me, Tonio, Cheri and Cricri.

 Café with the Kellehers, Volks and Petrignanis. =)

Cotignac, we'll see you again next week !

--Love Linz

Les BAUX-de-Provence, France

Exploring an old fortress.

Trebuchet.

{biggest one in France}

180 view from side of cliff.

Gorgeous man sighting.

{most handsome one in France}

Catapult.

Battering Ram.

It's a LONG way down.

Part of the Castle.

My Prince.

Cheri & I.

Chris & Tonio.

Another view from the top of the castle.

 Stocks.

Part of the town at night.

You can learn more about the history of this place if you click here.

Hope you enjoyed.

We did.

Thanks Volk family!

--Love Linz

ARLES, France

We have a family visiting from Seattle right now, 

and they blessed Tonio and I with a little trip into Provence, 

about 2.5 hours away from Nice.  

Thank you Volk family for this fun get-a-way.

Roman Colosseum

They have bull fights here in July/August.

{the non-killing-the-bull kind}

I know I always say it, but it reminded me of Disneyland. =)

A conceptual art exhibition, sand dunes, moon, astronaut, weird music.

The city of Arles.

Dang, it's old.

An ancient amphitheatre.

The craftsmanship so many years ago.

31 year-old feet on a thousand year-old ruin.

Our cute little bed & breakfast.

Tonio and I had pains au chocolat at this bakery - I liked their company car.

Catholic Church of Arles.

And the City Hall.

Thanks for taking a little walk through town with us.

Arles is just north of the Camargue region, west of Nice.

--Linz

creative spelling

don't feel bad,

even the French have a hard time with our last name

P e t u g n i a n i  means  P e t r i g n a n i

and

R é g l é  means  P a i d

This is a bag of buttons I ordered from a fabric store.

Finding joy (and silent giggles) in things like this

makes life a whole lot more fun.

What made you giggle today?

--Linz

ps - To give the sweet girl credit who wrote this note,

Petrignani is difficult.  And it's origin is not French; it's Italian.

So her little "iani" spin made perfect sense in that regard =).

worry by Mr. Chambers

"Have you been bolstering up that stupid soul of yours 

with the idea that your circumstances are too much for God?

Put all your 'supposing' on one side and dwell in the shadow of the Almighty (Psalm 91:1).

Deliberately tell God that you will not fret about that thing.

All our fret and worry is caused by calculating without God."

--Oswald Chambers 

 

And we all know the above cartoon is NOT true.

 

I once heard someone, somewhere say that 

Worrying is like sitting in a rocking chair;

It gives you something to do, but you don't get anywhere.

I'm so thankful that I can talk to God anytime.

He gives me so much peace,

even when life can seem a bit overwhelming.

Have you talked to God today about your worries?

I know I need to, sometimes several times a day.

--Linz

ps - This morning, Tonio and I talked a little about this, 

and we decided that the Holy Spirit uses Oswald Chambers 

sometimes as a baseball bat in our lives...

BAM !

{in a good way kind of BAM}

i smiled

3 choses qui m'ont fait sourire aujourd'hui

{3 things that made me smile today}

Cookie, le chien

{Cookie, the dog}

chocolat

{chocolate}

TEXAS !

{in FRANCE}

story of Cookie:

Today in a sport store with Tonio and Nancy,

I spotted this pooch being wheeled around by his owner.

After stepping aside to contain myself,

(I thought I was going to explode from sheer CUTENESS overload)...

I walked up the older couple and asked if I could pet their doggie.

They willingly obliged, and shared that his name is Cookie

and that he had just eaten, so he was a little tired.

After smothering and kissing him,

I asked if I could take a picture =)

The man even helped pose him for me

and get his attention.

We parted ways:

"Merci beaucoup!"

"Bonne journée!"

"Bonne journée à vous aussi!"

Thanks Cookie for making my day a little sweeter !

--Love Linz

nuits carrées

each year Antibes puts on a 2-night festival called 

"Les Nuits Carrées"

 it's at the Fort Carrée, where Tonio often plays soccer, remember this?

not expensive at all, 15 euros each for both nights, 

about 10 different bands/DJs performed

i love everything about this picture, especially Tonio's face & the photo bombers

not a bad venue, huh?

HANNAH & Les Cordes de l'ORCPACA

The NOTWIST from Germany

fascinated by the glowing sound board

 second night - couldn't ask for better weather

BELLERUCHE from the UK

can you find the moustache?

 DELUXE from France

We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

I can't wait until next year !

Listen to a few of our {my} favorites:

The NOTWIST - amazing sounds, got the chills a few times

ASAF AVIDAN - crazy voice, excellent entertainer

DELUXE - energetic & super fun grooves

--Love Linz