Winding down

 

It's Sunday morning, May 29, and we've just finished a breakfast of warm croissants, pain au chocolate and viennoise that Scott picked up from the bakery this morning.  The kids are watching our current equivalent of morning cartoons-"Full House" re-runs on the kindle with head phones.  It's raining and Scott is heading off to the grocery store before it closes at noon.  It should be very crowded because it's Mother's Day.  (Of course we celebrate both mother's days!)

Scott is eager to leave the  house, because I  threw his jeans in the washer and his work key, which was in his pocket, is now hitting the glass front every few seconds.  The machine is locked and you can't cancel or change the cycle.  We spent a few panicked moments confirming that the banging was not a cell phone or our car keys.  I rushed to start the wash because it now takes at least 24 hours to dry the clothes -because  it's warm enough that we don't have the heat on, but it's rainy so I can't hang them in the yard.   Jeans take days to dry.

Yesterday we went to a local park "Le Musée de Plein Air" which has a recreated town of 17th- 19th century buildings, and lots of farm animals.  We are not by any means in the country here, but there are farm animals everywhere we go.  A pair of roosters and a charming pair of geese (not Canada geese) roam around our street.  They make me smile very time I walk or drive by.  Yesterday one of the geese was an inch away from a parked car, staring at the driver's door.  Perhaps admiring his reflection or looking at a juicy bug crawling on it?  Here's an animal from the musée yesterday:

I wonder why people think pigs are dirty?

We have been here almost 5 months now, and we have checked off most of our to-do list.



Our remaining overnight trips are Nantes, in Brittany, and Bobby's birthday present of a weekend in Berlin.  The kids's last day of school is July 1st, and a week later my nephew Jake arrives.  We will   do day trips with him (Paris, etc) for a week, and then we leave Lille for (yes, I see the irony)  a week's vacation in Bordeaux.  Jake leaves from Paris and then we will head to England to spend a few days in Kent before we head to Heathrow for home.

In contemplating our last two months. we have been discussing why we are sad to leave, and excited to go home:

Bobby and Amelia will miss:

Being forced to invent games because we don't have all our stuff
Having a passport nearby to look at (B)
Half days of School on Wednesdays
Chocolate and Chantilly Waffles (B)
Croissant/pain au chocolat breakfasts
Their new friends

Scott and I will miss:

The food, esp. cheese.
Public transport esp. high-speed trains and the metro
The variety of places to walk and jog and bike- BIKE PATHS!
Museums and play centers all over the place, and inventive playgrounds and parks
Fresh bread every day
A weekly market  we can walk to
Mowing the lawn in 15 minutes
Being invited into people's homes for coffee
Weekend trips
The wonderful people at the EJM french/English conversation group
Our leased peugeot 308
Roundabouts
French
Really inexpensive good wine














Surprises around every corner (or at least a lot of them!)

I went to Belgium to get gas and found this fun display

A little cookie or chocolate with your coffee

parfait!

What we are eager to get back to:

Friends
Bikes
Bathrooms/bathtubs/basement
Yard and garden
Clothes dryer and dishwasher
The weather (I know, I know, it's been lousy in Richmond lately)
Eggo waffles (A and B)
Diet Coke (H)
TV/DVR (SPORTS!) and movies
English everything
Rigorous school where you know what your children are learning and how they are doing (H)
NPR
Real Sunday paper and a paper that arrives every day (see "no strikes" below)
No strikes!!
and last, but not least, our beds

Scott is a foot too long