Well that went quick. 7 and a half years in the blink of an eye. It all started so innocently, 1 year in Zurich, jam in as much travel as possible and be back in San Francisco before we know it. “Before we know it” finally came, just a bit longer than planned and with a few extra turns in the cobblestone road to say the least. Hard to recap all that happened, hopefully as time goes on the 1 million pictures we have and the few fun little posts to this blog will serve as documentation of the journey and help jog the memory.
I guess the easiest way to summarize it all is in 3 chapters. Chapter 1 Zurich. Chapter 2 Paris. Chapter 3 London. So let’s start at the beginning.
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| Hopfenstrasse 12, 8045 Zurich |
Zurich. Looking back, Zurich was a perfect entry point. With its medium size, ease of travel, efficiency in everything, and that everything is closed on Sunday, it gave us a good way to begin European life. Even after leaving Zurich, both of our jobs took us back there often and we got to know it fairly well. We learned some valuable lessons there. For one, European doors have a neat little design flaw in that you can get locked “in” the house (earlier blog posts can be viewed for full story). The Swiss take public transport seriously. Busses and trains are always on time, like to the minute, it really is amazing. Screens on windows would not be a part of our life in Europe, which is a real bummer in the summer heat since AC is not much of an option either (this still makes no sense to me at all, but I’ll let it go). We got to experience Christmas in Europe for the first time, ski a bunch which from Zurich was super easy, see the seasons come and go and for that 1 year (plus all the work travel in years to come) came to form a special bond with the city.
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| 19 Rue Chapon, 75003 Paris |
Paris. Oh Paris. Where to even begin. 4 years there and now forever a second home, forever a place I will want to get back to, both Paris and the country of France. Special for so many reasons, the baguettes, cheese, wine, the term “getting Frenched”, the language, the architecture, the gritty side, picnics, the Metro, and even those green trash cans found every 50m and the green brooms the street cleaners use. Its chaos and confusion were fun to experience for 4 amazing years. Oh, and Joséphine arrived along the way too! Everything changed in Paris, we got to see the city, travel some more, meet new friends, and not only find out we were expecting our first child, but go through the process just as any other French couple who had no idea what was about to happen would do. One surreal memory among many will be sitting in the hospital on the 2nd night, looking out through blurry and sleepless eyes and seeing the top of the Eiffel tower off in the distance. Our lives changed with Joséphine of course, the travel slowed down but for the most part we still got out of town a number of times. We had Wilma as our nanny who was amazing and definitely eased our transition to working parents. The sleepless nights are always tough, but pushing her around the streets of Paris in her “poussette” for afternoon naps, maybe even getting “une seize” while she slept was always fun to do. How many people get to do that? Parisian memories to be sure.
Paris may have been the last stop for us were it not for a career turn that extended the journey a few more years in Europe, taking us on to London.
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| 3 Victoria Villas, Ewald Road SW6 3ND London |
London. London got off to a rough start, though not really London’s fault to be fair. We moved there with a 2 and half year old in tow, busy jobs, all the transitions of moving to a new city and country, and then within 3 months little miss Elaine joins the party! 2nd time around and many things were certainly easier; diapers, feeding, sleep, it’s all business and you know the drill. New wrinkle is that #1 needs attention, so mom and dad can no longer trade off taking naps. And the 2nd really slowed down the travel. Even travel around London was hard as it was so much more spread out and more difficult to get from A to B. So we definitely found ourselves sticking close to home which was perfectly fine as our little corner of London called Parsons Green was a lovely place. We had a nice park, the river nearby, picnics on the green, and of course several pubs to choose from, our favorite being the White Horse. As our time in London moved on and things settled down, we started to find our rhythm, explore a bit more, and it really started to grow on us.
As 2017 came to a close, we finally decided that our time in Europe would sadly come to an end. 2018 would be the year to make the move back and wheels were set in motion. Rationale was pretty simple, Kindergarten was around the corner for Joséphine and it was simply time to get settled somewhere. So back home to California it is. Given that we didn’t actually leave until September of 2018, that gave us one final spring and summer which brought us a trip to Italy and one final journey to Paris before heading home to California.
So many memories and experiences over the 7+ years in Europe, a chapter of our life we will never forget and we’re fortunate that we have found a second home of sorts there. While it will never be the same, we will certainly look forward to future European vacations and the dream of one day being able to spend maybe 3 months a year in France once we retire. Given the experience we had there was more than we could have ever dreamed of, certainly doesn’t seem so farfetched that we can make that happen!
And Finally - My top 10 “things” I’ll remember in no particular order:
- Summer heat with no screens on the windows
- Pain / Vin / Fromage
- Swiss Public Transportation
- Sunday in Switzerland
- Running along the Seine
- Picnics in French parks
- European Holiday schedules
- Walking the streets of Paris
- English Pints in London Pubs
- The places we were able to see, people we met, and experiences we had!
