June - Wrapping up the School Year.

As you can imagine, June was also a busy month, we had to wrap up the school year and at the same time, spend some quality time with our family that came over for a visit.

In june, Anna had her final dance performance after completing dance classes for the full year.  It was quite a big deal as all the girls had the same rental dresses, several rehearsals and three final performances in the theater.  Pretty serious stuff here in France!

Behind the scene...

The whole group.

Tommy also had his capoeira batizado (or "baptism") which is when new students are welcomed to the group and receive their first belt (cordão).  Tommy did pretty well, but he was a bit nervous, as he was the last to do the test and he kept counting the belts to make sure there was one left for him.

Quite a few participants....!

Very nervous if enough belts are left, counting them over and over again...

Only two beginner's belts left!

Finally, Tommy's turn (he was the last one).

The teacher makes the student fall on the ground at the end :)

Relieved?

In June every year, France hosts the very well known event "Fete de la musique" or national music festival.  There are concerts nearly in every village/city and mostly for free so it is a great opportunity to get out and enjoy the culture.  It was also at this time that my dad decided to visit us last minute so we went to town for some beers and music.  

Posing.

Slack lining.

When my dad is around, Czech beer is never missing.

Dad and Jakub

Anna and Jana

While dad was here, we had the opportunity to take Tommy on a via ferrata, which is his favourite thing to do these days.   This particular via ferrata near St Christophe en Oisan is pretty cool because it is right above the river.

 

Some nature on the way.  I've never seen so many butterflies in one place like this!

June seemed to be very popular for birthday parties so we went to several of them over the weekends.  At the end of the month, my mom arrived, so we planned a few little trips. One of the most interesting trips was to the Choranche caves in the Vercors, where you can see really nifty nearly paper-thin stalactites, huge lakes, and some cool blind albino salamanders (I learned today they are called olms).

Super fragile stalactites.

Olms - not the best picture quality.

These features look like drums.

Outside on our way back home.

Jakub and I also went to Chamonix to do some easyish climbing for a weekend, but the photos are now on his camera which is with Jakub in Austria so I'll post that later when I get my hands on it....!

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