Plum Trees at La Defense

Here starts a week-long backblip of a week of no computers,where I did some sailing instructing.
The first shot is still from Paris, since I only took the train in the afternoon. This is my mom. I've blipped her a couple of times before, notably here with a blue coat rather than with a pink coat! Only now do I realize how funny the words to "blip" and to "backblip" must sound to non-users of the website!

Anyways, we had lunch at La Defense at a pretty cool restaurant which looks like the inside of a train. They serve you loads of saucisson and champagne (too french?). After a good meal, I ran a couple errands for my grandad before taking the train from Gare de Lyon down to Agde, on the southern coast of France. After that I made my way to Marseillan and the Les Glenans base where I sail. There's a couple bases around France, Ireland and the Caribbean, but this is my favorite one!
Its exactly at the mouth of the Canal du Midi, on the Etang de Thau, which is connected to the Mediterranean. Gotta say I'm very tempted to write these blips in french...



Decidedly, it was really good to be back amongst all these people. Good to be reunited with Micky and Sylvain, friends from last year's Easter teaching stunt. Micky's great, she was one of my first students and liked sailing and the atmosphere so much she stayed half of last year at the base. Sylvain's this dude who looks like a pirate and who pretty much spends all the time possible living at sea.
There were a couple other familiar faces, maybe less than usual though, since I haven't been able to come down much recently. I've spent a couple weeks per year at Les Glenans for the last 7-8 years, sailing catamarans. For reference, these are my babies: Hobie Cat 16 and SL 5.2. Both of them (especially the latter) are absolute beasts and very demanding but rewarding boats. You sail them in two man crews or solo. I'm now an instructor, so I came down for a week of teaching and sailing to get my mind off uni work.
Its an incredibly unique atmosphere and vibe here, which is what brings people back so much. We all work for free, whether its instructing or taking care of the boats. Everybody smokes way too much, and they all have crappy phones like me. Most people are french and italian, there's some belgian, british and others as well.
Anyways, I won't go into it too much. Lets just say a good night with loads of reminiscing! Instructing starts the next day.