Plans for coming home

Setting a date:
It's 99% certain that my last day of work in France will be Friday, Jan 26th. We're planning to travel to Brittany, Normandy and London before flying from Paris to NY. We'll fix it so that we get three or four nights in NY to catch up with friends and family there, before returning to Seattle. My best guess at this point says we'll arrive home on Feb. 10th.

Prepping to Pack:
When we rented this house, Mdm. Chautard explained that she'd love to have long-term tenants, especially during the low-season, but that she had already booked another family to stay in the house during the week of Christmas. So this week we're packing up all of our stuff and preparing to move out. Mdm. Chautard has graciously offered to let us store our stuff in the Chateau while we travel.

Although this is a hassle, especially for Ceil who winds up doing most of the work on this front, in the end, I think it'll be a good think. A rehearsal, if you will, for our actual return.

Although we did not avail ourselves of my company's offer to ship things over here, we will surely ship stuff home... partly because we've accumulated a certain amount of stuff (e.g. wine and... ummm... hmm... well, I think the kids have some things... hmm... and the wine, I guess) and also because we don't want to schlep all our goods around during our last week of traveling.

Christmas and New Years Plans
On Saturday, we'll check out of the house and move our belongings to the Chateau before making the seven hour drive to Barcelona, Spain where we've rented an apartment for five nights.

On Thursday, Dec. 28th, we'll get back in the car and make another 7-ish hour drive to Nice, France where we've booked another apartment through the New Year's holiday.

It turns out that there are hundreds of properties available for short-term rent throughout Spain and southern France. With the advent of RyanAir and EasyJet, Europe's answer to SouthWest, there's been an explosion in the number of folks able to purchase weekend homes, and plan brief get-aways from the UK, Germany, etc. to the warmer climes of the Mediterranean. A secondary effect has been lots of Brits buying places and looking to rent them while they're not using them, and of course, locals in places like Barcelona buying properties and leasing them out on a weekly or weekend(ly) basis.

For us, apartment living is an attractive alternative to setting up in a hotel. There tends to be a bit more room, a chance to close a door and get some distance from the kids and whatever chaos they're plotting; having a kitchen makes meal planning easier and less expensive (though I'm hell-bent on eating tapas and paella three times a day while we're in Spain, and conducting deep research in bouillabaisse while in Nice).

How will Santa Find Us?
He won't, so start lowering your expectations immediately. Plus, with Santa's hernia, he cannot carry very many things, or very heavy things to France. How heavy? Oh, I don't know -- say, anything too big or bulky to ship from France to the US -- how's that?

+++++++++++++

More to follow. Peace to all.