In the continuing adventures of France, we packed up our things last Saturday (yes, we totally misjudged the strawberry tarts and ended up having to throw some away. Très horrible!) and headed a couple of hours south west to a little gîte near Loche.

We always knew that this second gîte wasn’t likely to match up to the delights of our home from home the previous week (the place we stayed in week one was only available that first week – probably before most of the UK broke up for the summer!) and I must confess that, despite being the queen of silver linings, I found myself a little teary Saturday evening.

Here I was, hundreds of miles from home, missing a house that I’d only lived in for a week. How ridiculous is that?!?

What’s really stupid is that, had we only been to this second gite, if we’d never sat and drank wine with Bertrand in his château the previous week, if the children had never met Filous, the thieving, adorable golden retriever, if Michael (my son who speaks no French) hadn’t laughed and giggled playing football with Louis (the little boy from the château who understood no English) this second gîte would have been wonderful.

We’d have been thrilled and charmed by the winding staircase. We’d have been blown away by the collection of fruit trees in the garden and the wonderful outside space. We would still have been a little let down by the pool (it’s covered and kinda smells funny) but we’d have focussed on the wonderful waterpark five miles away instead.

And it got me to thinking about how this perspective thing can have an impact on day to day life, times when we’re not on vacation and it’s a same ‘old same, old kinda’ day.

What if your today wasn’t ‘same old, same old’? What if today was instead about wonder and adventure and delight?

Because the thing we’ve learned this week is that you can be in one of the most beautiful towns in the world but, unless you open your eyes to the lovely all around you, you’ll end the day miserable!

(You’ll be glad to hear that I did of course keep my eyes open. I have hundreds of photos of Loche and half a novel outline in my head. It was a wonderfully inspiring town!)

August is almost upon us which will either mean a month of glorious sunshine and fun or a month until the kids return to school and you can have your house back! 😉 What if how August unfolds is all a matter of perspective?

Which leads me to your challenge for this week, if you choose to accept it …

I dare you to decide that August will be awesome. I dare you to find just one wonderful thing, every day, that causes you to smile (or even an outright belly laugh!) and share it with me and everyone you know on Instagram.

And yes, there is a hashtag for that: #AwesomeAugust. (I know, I know, it’s not August for a few more days but since when did we let a little thing like the calendar stop us?!?) Tag me if you like because there’s already some action on that hashtag (I’m ‘mseledwards’ on Instagram.) but I’ll keeping a look out for your smiles. I can’t wait to see them!