Scottish farm girl, Sarah Elizabeth (who lives in Italy and is about to marry her gorgeous Italian man) has kindly passed on the Happy 101 award to me.
Grazie Signora!
I’ve decided that instead of listing ten things that make me happy (like this time), I’m going to list things that make me happy about living in France. It will be interesting to see if anything has changed since my Petit Rave awhile back…
1. When the weather is nice and the sun is shining, Provence is truly beautiful. The sky is a perfect blue, the scenery is breathtaking, and the air is scented with lavender. Everyday is a holiday.
2. My morning jog with Fifty. The views are stunning and it’s quiet, only the two of us are on the road (sometimes Vicky joins us). I love to watch the wind make waves in the tall grassy field as we jog on by. I like to pretend the grass is waving at us, so we wave back (I totally made that last part up… that would be a little nuts).
3. Serious food. Serious meal time. Once you sit down you’re not getting up for at least two hours. Seriously.
4. Learning about French wine. I’m not studying or anything, it’s a trial and error kind of thing and I’m loving it. Before moving here, I was more of a New World red kind of girl. I loved big brash Australian Shirazes, Argentinian Malbecs, and South African Pinotages. When I did dabble in the Old World, it was usually a Spanish Rioja or Italian Barbesco or if my wallet could afford it a Barolo, but I always stayed clear of French wines. Maybe I was intimidated by the Bordeaux and Burgandies, never knowing that there seems to be so many more French wines then I could have known (and I’m sure some are not very sophisticated but I’ve grown fond of them)… Corbieres, Vacqueryas, and Bruilly oh my! And don’t even get me started on my Provencal Rosés… these are dangerous because they are so good, and so easy to drink, before you know it… oops, bottle gone!
5. No convenience food on my doorstep. As much as I hate this sometimes, it’s better because I’m forced to eat healthier (hardly any processed foods passes my lips these days). And truth be told, while in Dublin catching up on one of my hungover treats (watch out Dipso alert!) of chips and curry sauce, I couldn’t finish eating it because it made me feel so gross. All that healthy eating has now begun to repel bad eating, and that has to be a good thing.
6. The new bar owner, aka, The Parisian. He makes Mojitos and Caipirnhas! I can now get a cocktail in Le Petit Village! A pig just flew by my window! I may be the only one who orders them (while Le Villagers look on curiously), but who cares, more for me!
7. Le Petit Village is less than a three hour drive to Monaco and from there only about twenty minutes to Italy. That’s just cool, I mean Monte Carlo, really. How James Bond is that? (And by the way, the booze in Italy is ridiculously cheap, it reminds me of my Texas days when we’d drive to Mexico.)
8. My little garden at my new house. It’s not the least bit pretty at the moment, and still needs a lot of work, but I’m loving sitting outside in the early evening with a book and Fifty at my feet.
9. The TGV. Now I have yet to take the high speed train anywhere, but I’m always talking about taking it somewhere. It’s nice to know that it’s there, ready to whisk me off somewhere fabulous, and at a high speed.
10. The Husband. He’s a happy kind of guy.
It's Me, Sara Louise 
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