By the Atlantic Ocean in Lacanau

Surfers on the beach in Lacanau, October 2014.

I left things off in Paris in the last post, and as a reminder in October 2014 I was on my way to my sister's place in the South of France near Perpignan to spend time there, and particularly to participate in NaNoWriMo, writing a novel. Before getting there I had a last stop on the way to visit my oldest friend and his family. They live close to Bordeaux, it was the school holidays and so we rented a house on the Ocean side in Lacanau, pretty famous for surfing. On that front it didn't disappoint, the waves were huge. My mate JB said he'd never seen them so high and was delighted to go surfing.

The weather was still gorgeous as you can see from this picture, and I even went in to play in the waves. I didn't spend a lot of time, frankly I thought the water was ridiculously cold, but I admit it was invigorating. 

I am the godfather of their second son, and it was also their first son's birthday, so it was great to spend time with the children. It is another reason I moved back to Europe, to be closer to the friends' and family children who grow up so fast and that I'd like to see more often than I could when I lived in Singapore.

I've known JB since I was 6 years old and there aren't many people who know me as well as he does, it was great to catch up with him (as it always is) and take stock of my little European tour so far, musing about where I'd like to live next and hearing where he was at too. I was thinking I might be ready to move back to Paris, though wasn't too sure. He recommended holding my horses and going back for a second visit with work in mind rather than leisure and catching up with friends.

I had done quite a bit of considering where to work and live between London, Amsterdam, and Paris in the previous three weeks, but on the other hand not as much as planned about writing daily and preparing for NaNoWriMo and it was approaching fast - only a few days left to choose what my novel would be about. I had been writing about many random ideas since leaving Singapore, focusing on daily word count, as well as reading up advice for novel writers but still hadn't settled on a story or idea just yet. 

While the Atlantic Ocean was a great spot to sort of conclude on my European tour, as I got on the train to Perpignan I was conscious of running out of time for the novel writing challenge. I opened my laptop on the train that day and determined to figure out the story I'd be writing.