VCCA France is a go!

Photo by Richard McCord, from VCCA website

The last several days have been hectic. Midweek I learned that I might be getting a residency at VCCA's facilities in France: Moulin à Nef, in the village of Auvillar. Trying to make that happen was stressful--the residency available was almost 4 weeks, and adding in travel would have been almost a month. That's a long time to be away--from the garden, the dog, the house, other responsibilities (which is the POINT of a residency, of course, but the thought of it was a little overwhelming). So I said no. But then the next day a much shorter residency opened up because of a cancellation and I grabbed it. Then it turned out I have a possible house-sitter (and dog-sitter), so I could be away for a couple of weeks without worrying too much.

So that much was decided by Thursday night. On Friday I headed to Chicago for my niece's wedding--although there were some horrific storms during the weekend, none of them disrupted any of the festivities, some of which--including the ceremony--were outside. Lots of fun, and I met lots of family and friends of my new nephew-in-law.

Today I've booked a flight (I decided to skip Paris on this trip, as much as I enjoy it) direct to Toulouse, where I'll explore for a few days before going to to Auvillar. I even booked a hotel. Really the last bit will be to figure out the train schedule from Toulouse to the nearest train station and book that. And then I'll be [mostly] all set!