Bonjour les amis! I've just posted the winner of The Little Bookroom Guide to Paris with Children, signed by author Kim Horton Levesque. (You can read the interview with her here if you missed it.) It was a bit tricky to post that information since we're currently in the Alps with no WiFi access! Honestly though, it's refreshing to finally be somewhere with almost no Internet access. Instead of occasionally checking email and social media accounts like Instagram, I'm taking walks with my children and my former host family, and cooking and cleaning and playing--you know, living, but with no online distractions.

My children running back to the chalet from the neighbors' swing set

*The weather has been gray but it's a decent change from the hot weather of Lyon*

The downside to this is that we're here without my husband, who needed to fly back to Oregon for work. His students return to school next week; la rentrée here in France is just two weeks away. Our kids are handling the temporary separation from daddy quite well, but a piece of our hearts will always be with him and I look forward to being able to reconnect through FaceTime and phone calls.

In the meantime I'm delighting in the incredible natural surroundings here in the Alps: the chalets are tucked among steep dandelion-flowered hillsides, and when the morning fog lifts you can see the high peaks of the crags above--even Mont Blanc on a clear day. Throughout the day you can hear the melodic sound of the cowbells as the cows wander the hills. (It's one of my favorite sounds when they're actually on cows--but not when they're rung by the cheering crowd at a small town American basketball game!).

*The cows with their cowbells on the hill above the chalet*

*My son and my former host sister on a walk above the chalet*

Have a lovely week, and I hope you get a chance to unplug and escape into nature soon too.