A Cariad Life

When I was growing up in my small town of Asheboro, NC, I thought it was a great place to grow up…we had wide, leafy streets with lots of hills to bike in the summer and sled in the winter. Even though many streets didn’t have sidewalks, we could walk to school, taking our time…

Today, I’m getting back to my blog, after almost a month away and I’ve missed it (it has been super busy)…today, also marks our 6 month anniversary of starting the B&B! So I thought I would start with catching you up on our progress and how we’re doing. Just six months ago, we welcomed our…

Last week on June 21, Darrell and I celebrated 26 years of marriage. When we married, we had both just turned 23, had very little money, and really had no idea of what we were getting into. Our wedding day in my hometown in NC was very hot, 98 degrees, but our family and friends…

These last few weeks in SW France we have been having summer storms. Just like in NC, when I was a little girl, the air grows hot and heavy–the humidity often about 75% without a drop of rain in the air. Just moving feels like an effort and all you really want to do is…

Yesterday, I turned 49. My younger self would have considered 49 to be the age where one is fully turning the corner into older years. Like many of you, I feel young inside, and then I catch a glimpse in the mirror, or stand on my feet for too long, or get asked to do…

When we first started the B&B, we had all kinds of ideas about what our guests would love and what they would appreciate–we planned with those conceptions. Many of those dreams were based on our experiences with American B&Bs–particularly when it came to breakfast. If you have visited B&B’s in the States you know that…

This week marks 4 months we have been running the B&B, and on June 6, we will have been in France for 6 months–wow! Time really has flown. It has been exhilarating, exhausting, at times mundane, frustrating, but always rewarding. After starting the visa process last September 2 (many of you rode that crazy ride…

Since we opened in mid-January, we have had about 200 guests, and when I consider that this B&B has been running for 12 years before Darrell and I purchased it, I realize that this home, in that entire time, has sheltered thousands of guests. (Literally, if each year there were just 500 guests, that would…

Today is Labor Day in France, a national holiday–and just like the US, it is a bank holiday. Yet, it is quite different here and means so much more this year for me. More about that in a minute…May 1 is also very special in our home because it is Darrell’s birthday! We took the…