Our Paris Anniversary

Well, it’s been now one year since we’ve moved to Paris.  This year has gone by so quickly!!!  We’ve felt the love from our family and friends with all of you who have visited.  We've had some first year learnings of how things operate here in France. Let me just give you a quick taste....I won't bore you with the details.  

We received no mail for the first month due to the August summer holidays and the fact that no one works. Setting up a bank account here is quite the long, drawn out process. Apparently it's normal for government offices to just be closed on a Thursday after 1pm. We've experienced both water leaks and electricity issues in the apartment and oh by the way, we as the renter got to make a claim with our insurance for water damage in the unit below us. Oh the joys of living in a different country (or maybe it's just France). And we’re still working with the French system to get our French social security numbers (Nate is a bit closer than me but I feel like mine is just around the corner!).  

But besides that type of bureaucratic stuff, it’s been a fun year filled with exploring Paris further (and having a rare winter where we could see it covered in snow as well...beautiful!), developing a love for cheese and French wine, exploring France (especially the wine regions), making some great friends and all in all just experiencing what Paris has to offer!  Paris is a magical city and one I would say we have fallen in love with.....along with France as a whole. What a great country. It's one that definitely agrees with us.

As we hit our one year anniversary of living in Paris we now start to do things for the second time around.  For example, we celebrated Bastille Day again on July 14.  Last year Nate and I had only been in Paris for maybe 2 weeks and we headed down to Place de la Concorde to watch the fireworks at the Eiffel Tower.  This year we gathered with our friends at the Champs de Mars for a picnic before the fireworks.  There was quite the group of us there....some people we knew and some new friends.  All in all quite fun!  Because it doesn’t get dark here until around 11pm, the fireworks don’t start until late.  But they had a symphony perform a few hours before which was quite enjoyable.  Nate and I skipped the fireworks this year though in lieu of getting out of there before the mass exit of people.  But we enjoyed the day all the same with friends, a picnic and the Eiffel Tower in the background.  

Our group for Bastille Day picnicking

Most recently we also watched the finish of the Tour de France. We went to the same spot where we were last year along the Champs Elysees near Place de la Concorde where the bicyclists come in and do their final laps. Again it was fun to witness and watch the finish and being that it was the 100th anniversary, they had a jet fly directly overhead as the first lap of finishers came through with the colors blue, white and red. Very cool!

And as you may have heard us complain about once or twice, it’s taken quite a long time for summer to make its appearance here.  But it has finally come and it has come in full force!!!  The last few weeks we’ve had beautiful sunny days with temperatures in the 80’s to even now almost 90.  It’s hot!!!  But Nate and I both swore we would never complain about it being too hot.  So we are enjoying every second of this weather because who knows how long it will last and winter will be here before we know it.  So that means lots of picnics in the park and evenings outside.  Love!!

A beautiful summer night on the Seine

21 Weeks

This past year though has brought us one major change...we're

expecting a baby girl in early December!!!  We are excited to say the least but also a bit nervous and scared.  It’s an overwhelming process normally and now to be in a foreign country where we don’t speak the language makes it all the more challenging.  But we knew what we were getting into and are excited to go through the process here.  Already it’s been quite the adventure.  There's finding a doctor that speaks English, signing up for a hospital right away (because you essentially have to reserve your spot as soon as you find out you’re pregnant), and just understanding the process here in general.  And there’s so much more to come that we don’t even know about yet. I've discovered this great women's group though for expats that speak English which has definitely been a huge help in navigating having a baby in France.  

The plan is for me to take my maternity leave here (I’m hoping for about 6 months after the baby is born) and then go back to work in the Paris office.  At that point we’ll start thinking about our next steps and when it may make sense to come back home.  But we haven’t made any final decisions yet and will play it all by ear.  

So as we start our second year in Paris we have lots to keep us busy as we plan for and try to prepare to have a baby in a foreign country.  The good news is that I hear the medical care here is top notch so I don’t worry about that.  As long as we can navigate the language piece of it all, it will be no problem.  Oh and just to clear up any confusion, just because our baby is born in France does not mean she will automatically get French citizenship.  So we will have a Parisian baby but not a French citizen.

We’re both looking forward to the adventure ahead and this next step in our lives.  It should be a fun, challenging and exciting one!!!

Paris, nous t'aimons!

A Visit from the Parents and a Trip Down to Avignon

After all of the different visitors we’ve had here in Paris, it was finally my parents turn to come visit us. We actually welcomed both my parents and my Aunt Bobbie and Uncle Andy here around the first week of June.  They had just come off a 3 week cruise and were making a stop to visit us in Paris.  My aunt and uncle were only in Paris for a few nights while my parents had planned a longer stay.  

We enjoyed a few nights in Paris with all of them....taking them to some of our favorite markets so we could eat at home one night as well as taking them to a favorite Italian place of ours in our neighborhood...changing it up with some pizza for dinner. 

Before we knew it though, it was time for Aunt Bobbie and Uncle Andy to leave and we were supposed to be on our way to Portugal.  Unfortunately though, Portugal just wasn’t meant to be for us.  There was an air traffic controller’s strike in both France and Portugal among a few other countries which of course started the Wednesday we were supposed to leave.  We could have re-scheduled our flight for Friday morning which is when the strike was scheduled to end but the airline still couldn’t guarantee that our flight would leave as scheduled.  So instead of taking the risk and having to deal with all of the chaos that would no doubt exist at the airport, we cancelled our Portugal trip all together and decided to take a train on Friday morning to the South of France and visit Avignon.  

By the way, a little sidenote and fun fact about France.  A co-worker was telling me that apparently the unions have a certain number of strike days they are allowed to take each year and it all resets on July 1.  Therefore there are always a larger number of strikes during the month of June as they use up their unused strike days.  Gotta love France!

Exploring Avignon

Breakfast in the garden of our B&B

Pont d'Avignon

Avignon ended up working out perfectly.  We stayed in a wonderful little B&B right outside of the old city center which provided a great garden to enjoy delicious breakfasts in the morning and a little happy hour wine and cheese in the evening.  We explored Avignon while enjoying some sunny and hot weather (a very nice change from our weather in Paris).  One of the sights to see in Avignon is the Pont d’Avignon, which is the Avignon bridge.  A friend from work introduced me to what is essentially a French nursery rhyme that’s all about this bridge.  Apparently all French kids know this song by heart.  (Check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8eLsHDaBY8)  It’s a catchy tune and don’t think I wasn’t singing it throughout our weekend there.  Well at least just the chorus....the other parts were harder for me to remember.  

Anyways, we saw the bridge, the Palais des Papes (the palace where the Popes lived and a UNESCO heritage site), the main cathedral in town as well as the garden nearby with a great view of the Cotes du Rhone valley.  It was a full day but we got a good feel for Avignon and saw the main sights.

Therefore on Sunday we took a day trip to the coast to a popular little town called Cassis.  After finally getting there with a bit of a detour and some parking issues, we had a nice lunch by the water and enjoyed a boat ride to visit the Calanques des Cassis (or little fingers of water in the coastline).  It was a perfect little day trip and the boat ride was a highlight for sure.  It was nice being out on the water and made me crave a beach vacation.  Greece, I’m talking about you in September!!!  As an extra bonus, I got to enjoy Father’s Day with my Dad....something we haven’t been able to do for a number of years now.  Very special!  

Happy Father's Day Dad!

We said au revoir to Avignon on Monday and Nate and I were back to work the next day while my parents leisurely explored Paris.  Nate and I both had quick overnight work trips that week....me to Madrid, him to Zurich, and came back in time to enjoy the weekend with my parents.  My parents also squeezed in a visit to the Google Paris office for breakfast that Friday morning.  They have visited me at Google Mountain View, San Francisco, Zurich and now it only seemed fitting that they made sure to come see the Paris office as well!

The weekend was a mellow end to their vacation of 5 weeks.  We enjoyed a few more great dinners, my mom and I made it out for some shopping and before we knew it, we were saying goodbye Monday morning.  It was sad to see them go but happy to know it’s only a few weeks now before we get to see them again, this time back in the US!