the great return

The car is packed full of Ikea furniture and too many garms and shoes, and I'm finally ready to head back to the glorious isle of Manhattan for my 2nd and final year of learnin'. I can't believe the summer is already over. I spent three fantastic weeks in Paris learning, exploring and growing, and then two even more fabulous weeks traveling Normandy, Burgundy, Provence and the Riviera with J.G. Then, back to Toronto for three months of working, family time, cottage chills, Niagara adventures, and overall city fun with my wonderful friends. I hate saying goodbye and honestly, as I write this, there is a small hole in my heart.

But on to the next step: autumn in NYC, and my last year of studies. I feel so blessed to have this opportunity to spend another year in that fantastic city, and despite a lot of pain in saying goodbye and leaving Toronto/friends/family/JG, I know it will be a good one.

Here's to fall, my favourite season, with its crisp air, cozy sweaters, warm drinks and leaf-crunching walks. And here's to another year in the greatest city, full of beauty, pleasure, learning, and growing- in so many ways.

PS- I have no idea who out there is a regular reader, so please, drop a line in the comments if it strikes you at any time! Say hi!

Perhaps this will be the year I will wear more lipstick?

Winding down in the Riviera

And so we ended our French adventures in the south, with 3 nights in Nice. Even though it was insanely hot, and our 4 floor walk-up hotel had no air conditioning (never doing that again!) we managed to enjoy ourselves thoroughly. In Nice we visited the Chagall and Matisse museums (Chagall was great, Matisse was pretty disappointing), snacked on Socca (a delicious salty chickpea pancake) and delicious seafood. We also took a day trip to Antibes where we spent the majority of the day lying on their beautiful sandy beach. Nice was truly a relaxing end to the vacation, and Joe and I dedicated are time there to really feeling like we were on vacation.

Training! First sight of the beach.

Miles Davis Statue at the Hotel Negresco

First evening on Nice boardwalk

Chagall Museum