Phew, the month of April is over and the A to Z Challenge is behind you and me.

Until next year 🙂

Until then, to honor this month-long challenge, some Thank You notes are in order as well as some congrats and a couple of announcements:

• Thank you, merci, to my partner in crime, ma camarade de lutte, during this month of April, pendant ce mois d’avril. Without her, sans elle, I wouldn’t have been able to reach the final line, je n’aurais pas pu franchir la ligne d’arrivée. Thank you, merci, Simone/La Livrophage/Lectrice en campagne.
• Thank you VERY much, everyone for reading me this past month. I realize that my posts were long. Too long. So I appreciate your time and your comments and your great sense of humor that accompanied me from letter A to Z.
• Time limited my visits to my favorite bloggers and to the participants to the Challenge. I am sorry about it and ask for your kind understanding and forgiveness.
• I’d like, however, to highlight four bloggers, all women, who chose A to Z topics worth a detour. BTW these blogs are not only amazing in April but also every month of the year.

Claire, a former teacher and librarian, wrote about libraries and anything related to these irreplaceable places

One of Susanna’s blogs is related to her copy-editing job. This month she plowed her way through anything related to writing.

Airline pilot Jetgirl loves France and anything French. This month she posted every day about a Parisian street and so much more.

Of course, I could only bump into a former Massachusetts resident who bought a weekend camp in Maine with her family and decided to embark on a full time Maine life, from A to Z, every day of the year.

The A to Z Challenge is a little excessive, but it is also an excellent discipline event and my energy peaks under pressure.

In fact, I submitted several manuscripts to editors this month. Wish me luck.

Many bloggers join daily or weekly blogging events to make sure they keep offering fresh content.

Triggered by Curt Mekemson’s early comment on a deal I made with my husband last year, you probably noticed my husband’s A to A Challenge parallel to mine. In April, he jumped in and offered one or two names of restaurants where we ate together. His fun idea gave birth to a couple of blog updates:

• Monday Manger. Starting on May 15, I will post about something related to food every Monday. If you stopped practicing your French vocabulary you may not remember that Manger means To Eat.

• French Friday. Because writing, reading, and living in the USA, away from France and all things French, remain a constant source of stories, I will still blog about these topics, but only on Friday. Today being late Friday I just suggest the article Why my Father Votes for Le Pen published in the New York Times, because France is electing a new president this Sunday.

P.S. Wanting to read Germinal again after writing about Emile Zola, look what I found on one of my crowded bookshelves. For full disclosure, I found two copies. The other one belongs to my husband. We decided that we read the novel at the same time. Aw…

My original school copy.

I used to add my first name in each of my books.

Apparently, while in high school I was a supporter of the French soccer team from Saint-Etienne, nicknamed Les Verts or The Greens, due to its home colors. Temporary fad, due to an irresistible player.

Thank you again for your support and positive energy.