I hereby declare July 1 as Smallman-Shaw Family Independence Day! Counting today, the last three 1st of Julys have been, in a word, spectacular. Two years ago it marked the official beginning of the sabbatical. And last year marked the beginning of our “bonus month” in Nantes. Today we arrived in beautiful Pornichet.

I took this photo of the four of us toasting “Family Independence Day” on the balcony of our Pornichet apartment (yes, it overlooks the ocean) after we spent over 3 hours sunning ourselves on the beach. Earlier in the day we were treated to a classic French breakfast at the home of the Boudeaus (man, the baguettes and pastries here are good). Frédérique drove us to the train station in Nantes, a tour that provided us all a great feeling to be back “home.” We were picked up at the Pornichet train station by a very thoughtful friend of our landlord who took us into town so we could pick up some food for the day. And our landlord invited us next door to his place for a delightful apéritif.

The 1st of July. What a day.