Photos et lettres des Philippines, de France et d'ailleurs

 As soon as I arrived in France on November 21, a cold snap fell in Europe and we beat records of snowfall in the Paris region so I stayed home most of the time only going out to run some errands.

(December 19, 2010. Our house under the snow)

Luckily the monotony was broken first by my birthday, then Christmas, then my son's birthday.

(Our Christmas party)

(Liette, the most senior member of 90 summers)

Finally we celebrated the New Year's Eve in Brittany with friends. To finish the series then it was my wife's birthday and finally the celebration of our thirty years of marriage, not to mention many nice meetings and dinners with our friends. No wonder I put on weight.

(The New Year's Eve party with our friends in Brittany)

(Our friend François from Brittany)

Meanwhile I spent much of my free time behind the computer to sort out and edit my pictures, attending photo forums and reading a lot of articles on many website French, American and Filipino to try to improve my skills in taking photos of landscapes and portraits.
I also used my hibernation period to learn many more words of the Visayas dialect spoken in the island of Negros.

However even if the weather is now milder, I begin to yearn for a warmer climate and I look forward to returning to the Philippines to see my beach lot, my friends, my dogs and try to practice my new photographic and language knowledge.

(Our village in France with a touch of spring light)

I need also to have the house’s steel roof repainted and to cut down my last 8 tall coconut trees. In fact, during my absence the area suffered a great storm and  the sea has not only entered my land within 30-40 meters burning a big part  of my lawn which I hope will grow green again, but also blew off  2 of the coconut trees that were luckily on the beach. The remaining trees are 40-50 years old and are at least 20 meters high. I feel bad to have them cut but climatic disturbances have now become such that they constitute a danger to the main house.
Finally I am now ready to leave, I bought my ticket in a travel agency specialized in the Philippines and where I am a customer for ten years.

http://www.visit-philippines.fr/philippines/index.php?lien=accueil&Lang=FR

I also obtained my visa from the consulate of the Philippines located near the travel agency and where I am well known now.

http://www.philembassyparis.com/

This time I'll fly again with Singapore Airlines on board of the Airbus A380. I confess to have a preference for Asian companies not only for the quality of their service but also because of the 14-16 hour flight, much is done in 12-13 hours between Europe and Asia and we don’t have a stopover of around three hours in the middle of the journey as it is with the Gulf companies but that's just my opinion.

http://www.singaporeair.com/saa/fr_FR/flights_france.jsp

My departure is planned for early March and I'll stay there for three months during which I will try to write a monthly article as I usually do and to share with you new photos.
See you soon!