It’s been a hot one. Much as I like the play on words of “Summer Simmer,” it’s often been more of a full boil, even a raging inferno. Several wildfires in France this summer were in areas I visited in 2019 with my friends Pascale and Jacky. One of the worst was in the forest at the base of the Dune du Pilat. Here it is before the fires.

This was part of our trip to the Bassin d’Arcachon.  Many thanks to Pascale and Jacky I saw it when I did.

Even here in the states, it’s been hot. No AC at the lake house, but this worked . . .

I’m home now and my phone reminded me yesterday of another kind of summer simmer: our worst day ever in France. Usually I love slideshows of the same day in years past, but theses photos were of Saintes, 2014, after various boating misadventures and the ensuing heated words. Yikes. This is about as close as David got to me that day . . .

. . . at least until we had to get back on the boat. We worked it out, of course. We always did. But I didn’t really need that memory today. This is also when David’s cancer was discovered in 2016–discovered the 24th, confirmed the 29th–so reminding me of the date was less welcome than usual.

Time to think of better moments. Beckett just turned three on the 20th, and he’s so much fun.

One of the gifts I gave him is a French-English visual bilingual dictionary, and he loves it. He still has trouble pronouncing “L” which complicates learning the proper articles (le, la, les), but he’ll repeat things like, “C’est un serpent.” (It’s a snake.) Chelsea says he even wants it read to him at bedtime, but since she won’t attempt French pronunciation, it’s considerably less interesting, reduced to “Frog, toad, tadpole, . . . goldfish, swordfish, dorsal fin, gill,” admittedly a pretty weak plot line for a bedtime story. 😉 I’m just glad he’s still enjoys learning French, and of course I love when he’s says, “Je t’aime.” That’ll brighten any day.

Here’s hoping the heat lets up, both words and weather. And I’m praying you get to hear and say “I love you” frequently, in any language you choose.