Happy 2026! We didn’t stay up for midnight, but we did follow some of the French traditions. For dinner, we had moules and crevettes (mussels and shrimp) but no huîtres (oysters). They were delicious. We watched Macron’s presidential address, which was exactly as expected. I did wake up at 11:53, just in time to hear some of the fireworks go off. There isn’t an official fireworks display or anything, just random people setting them off in the street. Luckily, Totti didn’t get too upset. She noticed the sound and then went right back to sleep.
At home, we always see the new year’s resolution crowd jogging around the neighborhood or going to the gym. We saw a few people getting exercise, but not many. I’m sure the weather has a lot to do with it – it was only 21 when we woke up, and isn’t supposed to get higher than 35ish today. We took a walk over to the exercise course – surely the new French gymbros would be running around there today! Nope. Only 2 other people were taking a walk. The course is pretty nice, a mix of flat trail and slope, with some exercise equipment mixed in. There are also two decent-sized lakes in the center of the course, and both were frozen over. Not enough to walk/skate on, but a nice crust of ice.
There were some donkeys in the field next to the running course. And some metal – so Z decided to see if his tongue would stick to the metal. Spoiler alert: it did.
And a few more random photos from the view around Confolens:
