Beginning of this year I did a summary of what happened for us last year and I was mentioning as well some of my wishes for 2024. So I thought I will try to do a similar posts every three months to summarise what happened in our life. So this blog post is a summary of what happened in my life from April to June 2024.
Début de cette année j’ai écrit un résumé de ce que nous avions fait l’année dernière et j’avais aussi mentionné quelqu’uns de mes souhaits pour cette nouvelle année 2024. J’ai donc pensé que cela serait interessant de faire un résumé de ce qui c’est passé ces trois derniers mois. Cet article résume donc ce qui c’est passé dans ma vie entre Avril et Juin 2024.
Read the 2023 summary post here. Read January to March 2024 summary here.

Personal Life:
Vie Personnelle:
Unfortunately March and April haven’t been good months for us. I lost my granddad mid-March and Matt lost his during the Easter bank holiday weekend. We also lost a dear friend end of April. These three losses in that short period of time were hard.
Malheureusement Mars et Avril n’ont pas été de bon mois pour nous. J’ai perdu mon grand-père mi-mars et Matt a perdu le sien pendant le weekend de Pâques. Nous avons aussi perdu un ami très cher fin Avril. Ces trois décès nous ont assez affecté.
On a brighter note, Marcus is now walking (even trying to run) and I have been promoted in June to a more senior role. Matt has finally fully recovered from his ankle micro-fracture that he did while playing football last December.
We have also received some members of our family and friends from France which helped us feeling a bit better. We have taken these opportunities to revisit some of the places we like in Cumbria and to discover new ones with them.
Sur une note plus joyeuse, Marcus marche maintenant (et même essai de courrir) et j’ai été promu à un poste supérieur. Matt a finalement récupéré de sa micro-fracture à la cheville qu’il s’était fait en jouant au foot en Décembre dernier.
Nous avons aussi reçu notre famille et des amis de France ce qui nous a aider à nous sentir un peu mieux. Nous en avons profité pour revisiter des endroits en Cumbria et découvrir de nouveaux.

Walking:
Randonnées:
We have done some nice walks in the past three months some of which are already on the blog and others that I need to write. We also walked around Buttermere lake with Matt’s sister, nephews and brother in law, which is one of our favourite walk when we have guests. We did several Sunday morning walks either by ourselves or with our neighbours around Loweswater lake and Ennerdale lake. The new walks I need to write are: one around Sale Fell, one around Ravenglass and one using Keswick old railway line.
Nous avons fait quelques belles randonnées ces trois derniers mois. Certaines sont déjà sur le blog et je dois finir d’écrire les autres. Nous avons aussi randonnée autour de Buttermere Lake avec la soeur de Matt, ses neveux et beau-frère. C’est une de nos randonnée préférée quand nous avons des invités. Nous avons fait plusieurs randonnées le dimanche matin par nous même ou avec nos voisins autour de Loweswater Lake et Ennerdale Lake. Les nouvelles randonnées que je dois écrire sont: une autour de Sale Fell, une autour de Ravenglass et une le long de l’ancienne voie ferrée de Keswick.

Travelling:
Voyages:
We have spent a week around Easter bank holidays near Windsor as Matt’s needed to go to the french embassy to renew his passport. The area was nice but definitely too busy for us. I have finished to write all my blog posts about our holiday there. You can find the list below.
Nous avons passé une semaine pendant Pâques proche de Windsor car Matt devait allé renouveler son passeport à l’ambassade française. La région était sympa mais trop peuplé pour nous. J’ai fini d’écrire tous les articles de blog de nos vacances là-bas. Vous pouvez trouver la liste ci-dessous.
We have also used the two bank holiday weekends in May to do more home exchanges. We had a exchange near York during the first bank holiday weekend and near St Andrews during the second bank holiday weekend. I will soon write everything about these little adventures.
Nous avons aussi fait deux home exchanges pendant nos les deux weekend fériés du mois de mai. Nous avons fait un échange près de York début mai et un vers St Andrews fin mai. Je vais bientôt écrire sur ces aventures.
Read about our experience home exchanging here
We stayed home in June and had some nice BBQs at several friends and neighbours.
Au mois de Juin nous sommes restés à la maison et avons fait quelques barbecues chez des amis et voisins.

Blogging:
Blogging:
I have been a bit slow at writing my blog posts for the past three months. This is common for me during spring and summer months as we spent more time outdoors exploring so less time writing. Hopefully I will catch-up soon or you will read all about our summer walks this winter 😉.
J’ai été un peu lente à écrire mes articles de blog ces trois dernier mois. C’est assez normal pour moi de moins écrire au printemps et pendant l’été car nous passons plus de temps à explorer donc moins de temps à écrire. J’espère rattraper mon retard assez vite sinon vous lirez mes randonnées de cet été en hiver 😉.
In addition I am still working on updating my blog to have a consistent formatting between all the blog posts and I am slowly writing all my walks in French and English on the Visorando website so you can easily download GPX files and PDF to do the walks. I am aiming to finish this by end of 2024.
Je suis toujours en train de mettre à jour mon blog pour avoir tous les articles au même format et j’écris lentement toutes mes randonnées en français et en anglais sur le site Visorando pour que vous puissiez télécharger les fichiers GPX et PDF des randonnées facilement.
See my Visorando profile here.

Books and TV:
Livres et TV:
As the beginning of the year, this spring I have been mainly listening to audiobooks. I have managed to listen to six books some great some less. Here the list in reading order.
Comme en début d’année, ce printemps je n’ai fait d’écouter des livres audios. J’ai réussi à en écouter six. Certains bien d’autres un peu moins. Voici la liste.
- The full English by Stuart Maconie
- The Satsuma Complex by Bob Mortimer
- On foot to Canterbury by Ken Haigh
- Idol, Burning by Rin Usami
- Isle of Dogs by Clare Balding
- It’s not all downhill from here by Terry McMillan

Blog discoveries:
Découverte de blogs:
Finally I am sharing some great blog posts written by fellow bloggers in the past three months.
Finalement je partage avec vous des articles de blogs que d’autres bloggers ont écrit ces trois derniers mois.
- I discovered the county of Haute-Alpes in France with Linda (FR)
- I went diving in North Coast of South Africa with Berto and Corna (EN)
- I discovered the North of Guatemala with Camille and Maxime (FR)
- Finally I followed Jo’s adventure in Ronda (EN)
Let’s see what Summer will bring !!!
Voyons ce que l’été va nous amener !!!

Find all our adventures in UK here

I’m so sorry for your losses, that’s an awful lot in such a short time 😦 On a lighter note, I look forward to your upcoming summer blogs! 🙂
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Thank you 😊. I am working on writing them 😉.
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Beautiful.
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Thank you
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3 losses in such a short space of time, that’s tough. I’m so sorry.
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Thank you. We are feeling better now.
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Many thanks for the link, Melodie. There are always walks to take, and great friends to share with here on the blog 🤗🩷
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You are welcome 🤗. Yes I like writing and sharing my little adventures. It is as well a good way to remember what we have done.
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Yes, personal diary. Or rather, public 🤭🩵
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Yes indeed 🤣🤣
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A lovely recap. You have been busy!
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Thank you. We did indeed.
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I think the walk around Buttermere is my favourite walk around a lake, lovely village and surrounded by the mountains 😀
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I agree. We always bring our guests there and it is nice all year around.
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Sorry for your loses. Hope things get better. Sounds like you have some interesting explorations planned.
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Thank you 😊.
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What a lovely family you have Melodie 🙂 Please write more about home exchanges, it sounds like a great idea for those who can’t Airbnb their own places (I can’t!).
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Thank you Kat. We like home exchanges. We had three great experiences and are soon going for a fourth one.
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Looking forward to the Keswick railway walk as I haven’t done that one, and also around Sale Fell as I like that area
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They are both very nice walks.
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I’m so very sorry for your losses. Hope you’re having a good summer and I look forward to reading about your adventures in due course.
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Thank you 😊. I wish you a great summer too.
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I’m sorry to hear how you both lost your grandad as well as a friend. I’m sure it was nice to spend time with family and friends. And it’s always great to find time for a nice walk.
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I’m glad you got over to York. An exquisite town. Adn that has nothing to do with me being raised a Yorkshireman… Well, maybe. A teeny tiny bit… Possibly. At a push…
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York is a beautiful town and to be honest we like the Yorkshire. We have visited a bit of the coast in the past and countryside and we definitely want to visit more.
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Music to my ears.
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Sorry for your losses, that must have been a sad time. Sounds like you have had some lovely adventures too and the homeswaps sounds like they have been a success. 🙂
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Thank you. We had some great homeswaps 😊.
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I still have to get to Ennerdale. I want to visit as it is one of the more remote waters and is usually away from the throng of people at Windermere and Keswick (not that they are bad places at all, just heavy touristy). Thank you for updating on your travels.
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Ennerdale is very nice. Walking around the lake takes around 4h. Yes a lot less tourists on the west side of the national park.
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We like Eskdale and Wasdale too. Beautiful and so few others around.
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I agree they are beautiful areas. Around Ravenglass it is lovely as well.
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Toutes mes condoléances pour vos pertes, ce n’est jamais facile et encore moins quand on est à l’étranger 😥. Bravo pour ta promotion au travail et j’ai hâte de lire les articles sur votre séjour dans le Yorkshire que j’espère découvrir prochainement 😊
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Merci beaucoup.
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I am sorry to read about your loved ones and friend who recently passed away. When a baby first starts walking, it starts to get busy for the mum (beautiful photo of the three of you and your dog). I can’t wait for our summer to have decent BBQs again! And I’m glad you enjoyed the diving with us on the North Coast – these are great memories for us! Oh yes, and your photo of the bluebells is beautiful!
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Thank you for your comments.
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I’m so sorry for all your losses, Mélodie. I’m sure it has been a difficult time, but you have also been busy as well. Sometimes keeping busy is a good thing to do while grieving. I love when people share not only the good times and the adventures but the hard times as well. May you find many blessings in the months ahead.
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Thank you for your comments. Travelling did really help.
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So many beautiful spring photos, especially the ones with the colourful spring blooms. I am so sorry to hear about all the losses – the grief process for multiple losses, is inevitably more complex than grief for just one loss. Its intensity can be greater, and it is likely to take more time to work through it. I hope that travelling and being in nature helps to slowly heal the wounds. Thanks for sharing, and have a good day 🙂 Aiva xx
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Thank you we were lucky with the flowers this spring.
Thank you Aiva, reconnecting with nature by going hiking or discovering new places definitely helped us.
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🥰🥰🥰
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