The Eagle Has Landed...

NOTE....be prepared, it's a long one.  You may want to pour a glass of red wine and get comfy.  Or do it as a three part series. :) 

I've been a bit AWOL lately, sorry.  Lots has been happening and it's taken everything in me to keep up.  Let alone not having internet here in France yet.  So I bought a 3G key for the computer and am using it to send this out into the cyber world and catch everyone up on what's been going on with the final move.

So, let's start on Thursday April 28th.  Charlie's International Medical Certificate arrived from the USDA, WHEW (btw...there is no quarantine for France and all the dogs need are up-to-date rabies, a microchip, and a vet exam 10 days prior to flying and a stamped International Medical Certificate-filled out by a certified vet and stamped by your local USDA-to enter), 

AND...UPS came and picked up the boxes.  We had priced 20 and were aiming to be ruthless and get down to 10.  We ended up with 19.  Hmmm.  Well at least it wasn't 20!  So…mission accomplished!

Friday was jam packed with saying goodbye to friends and agents.  Always when I'm leaving do I find the time to get together with my lovely girlfriends and realize just how wonderful getting together for coffee is!! This is the, "I'm not gonna see them for a long time", phenomenon that makes us do the things we really should be doing regularly.  Or at least it is for me.  Note to self for the "new" life...Don't do that!!

Saturday and Sunday I worked on creative ways to pack two bags with all my clothes and the kids clothes and those little extras that seemed to be needed.  I ended up with three bags in the end. Not a problem really since we had three tickets and each allowed a bag.  BUT…what I forgot to mention is that James ended up needing to stay in NYC to do three audio books in a studio and will be joining us in three weeks.  So I was on my own with two kids, a dog, and three bags to deal with, let alone not knowing the language.  I wasn't really that worried, was going with the "zen" approach.  (didn't really have any other choice)

If you think this is ugly, you should have seen them before  surgery. :)

Monday, May 2nd, I got my stitches out and we flew.  I really must have been quite a sight walking around the airport with two kids and a dog in my slippers.  Yes, my slippers.  I couldn't put my feet in my tennis shoes yet so I had no other choice.  Thankfully I understood the idea of using the big muscly guys outside the airport and the art of tipping.  Therefor I didn't have to lug my three bags or wait in the LONG line to check in.  Thank you Mister Outside Bag Man, you were my White Knight!!  

Finding ways to spend our 5 hour layover in Germany.

Can't really say much else about the trip, the kids were on extra special behavior, obviously they knew mommy needed it or someone would lose a head, and we landed on Tuesday in warm sunny Nice, France without a problem.  Well, besides that mean German man who was rude to Emmerson, but we'll skip that.  

Grandpa met us, we took a cab to the apartment, unpacked and then re-met Grandpa out to have a bite to eat.  Everyone surprisingly had energy even after all that traveling…..until the ravioli hit their bellies.  Taylor suddenly glazed over, laid his head on the table, and was asleep in two milliseconds.  Made for a difficult walk up the hill to the apartment.  

Wednesday we did our banking, got minutes for the phone, shopped for groceries, Skyped Daddy, and relaxed. This is so easy.

Thursday Taylor started school again.  He was in super good spirits when we picked him up so I assume he slid back into the system quite easily.  And it seems little Nikita was happy to see him which I'm sure helped.

Should have known by her face that it was the beginning of the end. The other photo I took looks much more confident but less poignant. :)

Friday, Emmerson got to start school too.  Well, her type of school being two and all.  She was super excited since she was going to Taylor's school and got to take her new book bag.  She proudly entered the school and sat with Taylor in the waiting area until the teacher gathered her and the other mini students to head downstairs to their area.  What a big girl she's become already.  And YEAH!!!  Mommy got a day off to tool around and do nothing.  


Ok, far from the nothing I was aiming for, I went to the Orange store to sign up for Internet, cable, and phone…..and the beautiful vacation came to a screaming halt.  I knew I should have been better about doing my Rosetta Stone!!  So I called in assistance from my new California expat friend who was a smart girl and studied French for years once she knew she wanted to live here.  I wish I was her.

And, I will have everything installed in oh, maybe, three weeks…….ah, gotta love the French.

Friday continued...it was also Emm's last day of school.  Seems she was a bit weepy and clingy with the teachers and they thought it best to wait til September to go at it again. She's usually quite independent, but if I had all those new people around me and most speaking a new language I'd be weepy and clingy too.  Don't fret my little sweetie, we'll have lots of fun together.  You'll be my cafe and beach buddy.  

Saturday was spent at the "Beach Club" in St Laurent Du Var with three other moms and their kids. The restaurant is on the beach so the ladies got to sit and have cocktails and food while the kids played in the sand. Must go there again!

That's Taylor being shot out of a tube that started up in the trees.

Sunday was spent at an outdoor park called Le Bois des Lutins (The Forest of Elves) in Villeneuve, where the kids got to climb rope ladders to tree houses and then slide down huge slides from up in the trees.  If I didn't have such bum feet I'd have been doing as much climbing and sliding as Taylor!!  Next door was a tennis club so next time James can come for his tennis lessons while we children play in the forest. :)

Monday, May 9th, Taylor goes to a farm with his school and I find some fun classes for Emmerson to attend at Le Kid's Club.

I don't know about you reading this, but I'm tired, and loving every minute of it!!

And there you have it.  My week and a half NYC to Nice transition.

"She's a Human Being isn't She???"

As I hang around couch-bound after bunion surgery the only work towards the move I can do is on the computer.  So, I was looking into flights for us to return to Nice and it reminded me of a story I wanted to share.....


Last April (2010) we planned a two week trip to Nice, France to visit with Grandpa and help him to settle into his new city.  Everyone was excited to go and Taylor had told all his school friends he was going to France.  Our date was shortly after the volcano issue and, lucky us, the day before our flight planes were finally okayed to fly in our trip's direction. 

Just dropped at airport...(T really was excited, you'll just have to believe me)

On the day we grabbed T from the bus, jumped into a cab and headed to the airport.  Each plane we saw taking off made us all the more excited.  We got into line, not horribly long surprisingly (we had expected the airport to be jammed with stranded people waiting for a break), and waited.  Well, with two young children anything more than five minutes is long and they began to complain.  A nice British Airways woman rescued us and let us into the business class line which was MUCH shorter. 


Once at the check-in desk we presented all our papers and passports and gave ourselves high fives that we were almost on our way.  Then, the British Airways woman asks for the infant's passport.  Ummmm....


Here's the conversation...


Us:  "The what?"  


Her:  "The baby's passport."  


Us:  "She doesn't have a passport."


Her:  "She needs a passport to travel."


Us:  "But she's only 1 years old! She doesn't even walk yet. Why does she need a passport?"


The male co-worker now standing behind Her:  "She's a HUMAN BEING isn't she?!"


(Add a silent "DUH" after his statement, coupled with hands on hips and a cocked head and eyebrow)


Her:  "NEXT..." (looking over us and never again in our direction)


Us:  "But what are we to do?  Our plane leaves in two hours?"


Silence.....


Well, we moved away from the desk, heads hung low, Taylor asking why we weren't getting on the plane.  I felt like I was going to both throw up and throw down.  The lady and the man were officially off my Christmas list.  We called a cab to take us home and rode home in silence.


Now, comes the hurray part......


James, my amazingly wonderful husband, and our incredibly intelligent friend Jen worked it out so we could still use our tickets with no penalty and we rescheduled for two weeks later.  It ended up that, lucky for us, there was a "Volcano" umbrella that allowed us to reschedule our trip at no extra cost.  


Now it wasn't easy mind  you.  James had to talk to a couple BA operators who didn't know what they were doing and finally got a manager that was super good at his job and worked it all out for us.  But because we were so crushed by the ordeal we didn't see the way until Jen propped us back up.


Jen:  "You gave them thousands of your dollars for tickets and they still owe them to you, now get back on that phone and get your tickets!"


A couple days later I dashed up to Philadelphia and got Emm a passport and renewed mine overnight since it was close to expiring.  We kept our bags packed and made our next flight.  Whew!  Now, it's just a fun story we get to tell at dinner parties.


POSITIVE SIDE...the good karma part that kept me positive through it all was that because our family (three seats on the plane) couldn't go, it opened up three seats to people who were stranded in NYC due to the cancellation of their flights from the volcano. 


MORAL...If you're human, you need a passport.  And those BA agents are sticklers for that rule!

And the Adventure Begins...Dec 1st, 2010

So James and I planned to live in Nice, France for the winter (to try it out) and then if happy, come back, pack up and move permanently after our lease in NYC ended.  After a cold and snowy winter last year I was all for a few months in the South of France.  Who would in their right mind say no to a husband whisking the family off to pastries, coffee in outdoor cafes and afternoon strolls on the beach?  It would be a financial risk since I would most likely not be able to work, but it was only three months.  So, I said bye to my agents, friends, and family, pulled Taylor out of Preschool, got the dog a Pet Passport, found a renter for our apartment, packed as minimally as I could and off we flew.


Just in time actually since major snow storms followed right behind us and have blanketed NY nonstop in feet and feet of snow!


Then December 15th-ish James comes to me and says..."I have an idea...how about you stay out here with the kids and I go back in March to pack the house.  No sense in the kids and the dog going through the flight again if they don't have to."  He really likes his curveballs!


And so the adventure truly begins...stay tuned.  :)

Opening Remarks....the Backstory

Hello folks and welcome.  James came to me about a year ago and said..."Maybe we should move to France."  You see his dad had sold his house in London and was moving to a sunnier climate.  James always has the itch to move around but I was happy in New York.  I was a commercial actress and print model and doing quite well.  Not many of us can do that and not supplement with a waiting or bar tending job. I was comfortable and scared to leave a job I loved doing and move across the world to a place where I didn't speak the language.  And the French are very particular about their language.  


But the idea was intriguing and I had always wanted to live in Europe, although I never really thought it could become a reality.  Thank you stars for sending James my way!  Finally I relented and gave in, not that it was that hard to do.  Sometimes you just have to decide that life is more important and the world is a big wonderful place that should be seen and experienced.  


So, here we are.  As of December 1st we are living in Nice, France.  And no, I still don't know the language.  Which proves very frustrating at the grocery store when I can't find the right kind of deodorant.


I decided to share my experience with anyone who wants to have a peek into my life, or to simply do a bit of a vicarious traveling.  I'll share our trips to fun villages, cities, other countries, the markets, a simple grocery store run gone bad, as well as the pressures and the fun of life as an Expat.  There will be videos, photos, and sometimes just plain text.  I have a bit of a backlog to get the story straight, so bare with me as I get the old video edited and start from the beginning.


Soon....promise.  When you get a minute come back.  Promise there will be fun things to see.