End of summer in the French countryside

What is it about the end of summer that I always feel like time has flown by? Like at the beginning of summer I feel I have this whole long summer full of warm and sunny days ahead of me and then all of a sudden end of August as we all prepare for what's called la rentrée here in France which means going back to school, going back to work, summer's over, let's get back to reality and I really look back and think where did summer go? Like it felt like it's flown by and I'm not sure if I have fully enjoyed the summer days. When the nights are getting colder again, when we start stocking up on wood for the coming winter, we know that fall is inevitably coming even though we really do have so many nice warm and sunny days still throughout September and October. I always struggle a bit transitioning to this next season and I've been so incredibly busy this summer. I have worked days and days on end on my cookbook which I am happy to say is almost finished. We have a photoshoot planned and I'm also going to share really gorgeous images of the winemakers work in the vineyards. I'm sure you're going to love this book if you like this channel. It's going to be so much more than just a cookbook and yes the end of August, early September is la rentrée but it's also a very buzzing and happy time of year here in the Good De Boon wine region because it's harvest time and harvest has started here this week and some people have started last week already and it always gives such a wonderful vibe. We had friends from the Netherlands visit and I took them on a tour through the vineyards and we also went to look at Chateau Pomar which I have visited before on this channel but they're doing great renovation works so I wanted to go see how they're doing, how they're getting on with the renovations and I also wanted to show you their beautiful chateau garden. Speaking of a chateau, I keep being amazed with how many there are everywhere here in France. It is really amazing and maybe you've seen my recent home tour video which I shot in the Beaujolais region and I have a friend there and I contacted her on the day saying hey do you have time and we met up for dinner that night which was really lovely and I don't know somehow we ended up at another chateau. We also went on a short family vacation. We always just block the rentals so we can leave as a family for a few nights and we didn't go very far. We just went about three hours drive to the region that's called Le Parc Naturel du Pila just between Saint Etienne and Lyon and it was actually really nice just to spend a few days in another scenery without the distractions from work and our phones. We just did some hiking and just spent time together. It was really really nice. Thank you. Back home the signs that fall is coming are everywhere in the garden so we're getting ready to slowly and gently transition to this new season and we're also harvesting our grapes. We haven't done that so far. We've always just left them and the bees and insects really like them but we have also noticed that especially the hornets like them and since maybe about 10 or 20 years we have Asian hornets here in France and they are very destructive for the natural balance in the garden meaning they eat bees and they sometimes can kill an entire colony of bees. So we are going to put traps for the fall and also we're going to cut all of the grapes because they fly around all the time and although the males don't sting the females do and that's actually quite dangerous. They're not as dangerous as the European hornets but still you don't want to get stung by them. So we're cutting them also around the front door of the cottage since we're renting it out it's more comfortable for guests and we're actually going to try to make maybe confiture with the grapes for the first time this year because we've never like I said harvested them. So that's the confiture season, the grape harvest season, the boys have gone back to school so yes we're gently and slowly transitioning to fall and fall is such a beautiful season here. The vineyards look absolutely gorgeous in the fall, the weather is usually really nice so I'm hoping to share some of that fall magic with you in the coming videos. As always thank you so much for watching, I'd love to hear from you in a comment and I will see you in the next video.