What a year it has been, we could never have imagined how different our life would be now. Here are a few of the sketches that captured some moments along the way.

A new year always presents a bit of uncertainty, little did we know all of the changes – but we have loved the ride.

At the end of January we went to Peñiscola in Spain.

After Spain we were back in Normandie for a bit, spring was starting and the neighboring farm buildings were quite sketch-able.

In March we headed out for a long trip that included Lyon, Geneva, Umbria, and Croatia. Assisi was my favorite place in Umbria.

Croatia is one of our favorite places of all we have visited. We spent almost three weeks there, one of the weeks was on a small cruise ship.

Back at La Thebauderie Tricia took time to chat with the neighbors, and we began to talk more about returning to the US.

In June Tricia had eye surgery so it was back to Paris for almost two weeks. Her surgery went well yet the recovery is still ongoing.

Then it was back to La Thebauderie for the final time. We packed up a shipping crate to send personal things to the US – our decision was made, we were returning the US. This is one of the last sketches I did before we left, looking out the window at the flowers.

We left Normandie headed to Avignon in the south of France. We stopped first near Monet’s garden, then on to Paris to catch a train from Gare du Nord to Strasbourg, we rented a car and drove to Luxembourg, then to Annecy, and Moustiers Sainte Marie, before arriving at Avignon – our home for the next two months.

Our apartment in Avignon was perfect and in the perfect location, a narrow street and close to everything we needed.

We took a weekend trip to visit Tricia’s cousin and his partner in Marseille – David and Nat.

There was a “quick” trip back to Paris for a follow up appointment with the eye surgeon. Then the journey to Portland, Oregon actually began. We first visited my step-niece and her family in Germany, spent a final two weeks in Paris, just because, then left France on the Eurostar for London and our flight home.

It was quite emotional knowing we were leaving France, we kept reminding ourselves it was au revoir, pas adieu. We will go back one day.

We have an apartment now in the Pearl District of Portland, quite a different street view than our driveway into La Thebauderie.

We love our place and are settling in, I wanted to wake up in our own place on Christmas morning, we did that. I have started oil painting and am looking forward to the warmer weather for plein air painting.

Thank you so much for following us on this journey, your comments and encouragement were so appreciated. I wonder what our world will look like a year from now, I have a few fears but mostly positive anticipation and hope. As always I love your thoughts. And be sure to check in with Tricia as she did a year end wrap-up on her site.