I haven’t had much of a chance to update my blog in the past couple of weeks — I have been travelling a lot, and my client’s wife went into labour last week so I now have twice as much work to do with him out of the equation for a few weeks. I have been up to my eyeballs preparing workshops, and most of last week was spent in unglamorous airport hotels across Switzerland (but I did get a chance to catch up with some old friends, so all was not lost).

I will try to put a few more entries here in the next day or two, as this weekend and next weekend are both public holidays in France so I’ll have some time on my hands, but for now I thought I would just stick up a couple of the photos I have from a few weeks ago when Jerome came to visit us for a few days in Paris.

Jerome seems to be enjoying his weekend in Paris

Brother and sister…

A few more pictures from Easter Sunday in the South of France…

There are definitely worse places to spend a Sunday afternoon…

Aude’s mother, hard at work preparing Easter lunch

Minouche watches everything from the garden

Jerome and Liher relax with a book before lunch

Even if my parents couldn’t be here in person, they were with us in spirit!

Aude has always been rubbish at hide-and-seek

Aude and her mother in the March sunshine

Jerome and Liher beside the pool

Everyone in front of the pool

Matthew, Jerome and Liher

Aude puts the final touches on the starter…

Foie gras and cepes — a great way to start Easter lunch

It’s my first day of vacation since my honeymoon six months ago, and it couldn’t come soon enough. The last week has been filled with lots of late nights and early mornings as we prepared a series of four-day workshops for a client. The three-day weekend is just what I need to recharge my batteries.

As I write this, we are once again enjoying the magic of the French rail network. It takes about 4h30 to get down to the coast by train. We left a cool, grey morning in Paris and snow-covered fields just outside the city. I closed my eyes for what felt like just a few minutes (but was in fact three hours) and the next thing I knew, beautiful Mediterranean sunshine was outside my window. I don’t think I will ever grow tired of the TGV network – it really is one of the marvels of France.

We have three days in the sun with Aude’s parents, then she will return to Paris and I will fly to London for the week – it seems the office is really determined that I won’t spend any time actually living in Paris! As we move from winter to summer, the base for the project over the next months is likely split between Geneva and Barcelona rather than Zurich and Paris. At least I’m getting to see a lot of Europe – given that we have a significant part of our client base in North Africa, you have to be thankful for what you have sometime.

Let the long weekend begin…