Orleans

Jeff had a short conference in Orleans, France last week. Orleans is a town about 130 km from Paris. Jeff flew into Paris and than took a taxi. I thought I'd share some pictures of what he managed to see in the two days that he was there. Outside his hotel.
Cathédrale Sainte-Croix d'Orléans. This Cathedral's construction began in 1278 and Joan of Arc worshiped there at one time.
Joan of Arc's crypt.

The Marka

In the area that we currently live there is a forest or marka about a three minute walk from our rental. If we drive about three minutes away there is an area of the marka that has been built up with many trials leading into berry filled woods and eventually to a few lakes. Jeff and Avery took off last weekend to try and find the lakes. They took a wrong turn and ended up on a trail that took them in another direction but they still had a nice hike. Unfortunately, my pregnant hips can't take much walking these days so I stayed home and napped (which really was not too bad). Here are a few shots from their day. A creek next to the trail.
A waterfall they discovered.

When Jeff got back he checked out the map and discovered the lakes were very close to the trail they had taken. We will be going back up this way to find them another day.

Land of the Midnight Sun

We're back to days with basically no night here in Trondheim. We peaked last week and soon our days will start to shorten, a little. During these days, by the time the sun goes all of the way down, it pretty much starts to rise again. There is basically no complete darkness. Jeff and I have decided it is like living with perpetual jet lag. One looks outside at 11 pm knowing they should be tired but the body feels like it is 8 at night. It is really hard to wind down for a good nights rest. Then at around 3:30 am the sun is blaring in again. We have blackout curtains all over the house and try to make it night time around 8 each evening. It kind of works but there are still bits and pieces of sunlight that makes its way through reminding us that we are just playing a trick on our bodies. I shouldn't complain, however, because the days have been beautiful lately and June truly is one of the best months in Norway. July and August are pretty great too. Everything is electric green and with this much sun the flowers and trees grow like weeds. I am expecting in the next few weeks that the berry crop will be ripe and there are berries literally everywhere. Summer in Norway really is great as long as you can figure out how to get a little bit of sleep!This was taken about a week ago outside our bedroom window at around 11 pm.
This was taken last night at about 11:30 pm.