A favorite word of mine: yes.
I looked at Friday's weather. It was 100% chance of rain. I considered cancelling my car reservation. Since I rarely regret saying "yes", I stuck with my plan. I had a few French field trips still on my wish list so with a car, I knew I could explore. We are traveling the next two weekends and then it will be December 21st. That day, I will not only be forty-five years old, but I will be on an airplane saying "au revoir" to France. So Friday, I decided to go to Les Baux-de-Provence.A few weeks ago when we ran into the green vests on the way home from Orange, we were quite closet to Les Baux. As Brewster mentioned in his blog post, he was ready to go home that day so my request to stop in the hilltop town was denied.I figured I'd go by myself another day. Since I knew it was going to rain on Friday, I found an 11am yoga class in Saint-Rémy which 15 minutes from Les Baux.My mom enjoys going to new churches when she travels. I like yoga studios. A few minutes before 11am, I pulled into a cozy old boutique hotel called Mas de L'Amarine where the class was taught. Immediately, I knew my day away from Aix was already worth it. I walked through the drizzling rain, past a long garden table, right into the cozy reception area. "Bonjour?" I said. Please-have-yoga, please-have-yoga I silently hoped.
We stopped for lunch in a deserted hill-side town, Vauvenargues. 
It was late and the kids were "hangry". While we waited for our food, I found Harry Potter trivia on my phone which Sadie rocked. Brewster had his revenge with world geography trivia. Engagement is essential when waiting for a meal with kids.We were back in Aix late afternoon, and I dropped the kids off at home and returned the car. By 5pm we were snuggled up watching the 7th Harry Potter movie. We went to bed early because Brewster had his last basketball game at 9am. It was in Aix-en-Provence so we could walk, but we had to leave by 7:30am.Announcement: Brewster's team won their game! Brewster scored nearly twenty points. It was a great last game. We walked home via the Musée du Vieil Aix. The first Sunday of the month some of the museums in France are free and I am a sucker for free. I hadn't been to this museum and I was happy it was free because it was underwhelming. We were only there for about 15 minutes. I asked the kids if they wanted to go to another one and Sadie said "two museums a weekend is plenty. Thank you." She was ready to chill at home.Around 2pm we were back on the couch with popcorn and blankets watching the final Harry Potter movie. I was blown away. JK Rowling is a genius! Sadie kept saying "I freakin' love these movies." She is officially obsessed with Harry Potter and counting down the days to our Harry Potter studio tour in London. T-minus one week.I feel so grateful for the opportunity to be in France with Sadie and Brewster and have Matt's unconditional and financial support. We all miss him. Soon we will be reunited. In the mean time, we continue to to squeeze it in and keep saying "yes."
It was late and the kids were "hangry". While we waited for our food, I found Harry Potter trivia on my phone which Sadie rocked. Brewster had his revenge with world geography trivia. Engagement is essential when waiting for a meal with kids.We were back in Aix late afternoon, and I dropped the kids off at home and returned the car. By 5pm we were snuggled up watching the 7th Harry Potter movie. We went to bed early because Brewster had his last basketball game at 9am. It was in Aix-en-Provence so we could walk, but we had to leave by 7:30am.Announcement: Brewster's team won their game! Brewster scored nearly twenty points. It was a great last game. We walked home via the Musée du Vieil Aix. The first Sunday of the month some of the museums in France are free and I am a sucker for free. I hadn't been to this museum and I was happy it was free because it was underwhelming. We were only there for about 15 minutes. I asked the kids if they wanted to go to another one and Sadie said "two museums a weekend is plenty. Thank you." She was ready to chill at home.Around 2pm we were back on the couch with popcorn and blankets watching the final Harry Potter movie. I was blown away. JK Rowling is a genius! Sadie kept saying "I freakin' love these movies." She is officially obsessed with Harry Potter and counting down the days to our Harry Potter studio tour in London. T-minus one week.I feel so grateful for the opportunity to be in France with Sadie and Brewster and have Matt's unconditional and financial support. We all miss him. Soon we will be reunited. In the mean time, we continue to to squeeze it in and keep saying "yes."