Living happily together on our ‘Fifth Avenue’
It’s official! Perhaps not entirely legal yet but definitely official. My illustrious frenchman added my name to our door buzzers and the mailbox.
Extraordinary research has been performed on every expat and American organisation within the Midi-Pyrénées and we attended our first social event avec beaucoup de plaisir. It really is quite exciting. I think my life in France will prove to be a perfect fit. We also happy-hour’ed with fellow Americans, though my stage fright quickly emerged. My frenchman saw another side of this scrappy little fun-seeker, all sweaty and timid for no apparent reason. Last time we were at the Crowne Plaza (yes, a Crowne Plaza, don’t judge me, this is Toulouse!) bar, by the time my frenchman walked in, I had a room full of hilarious airline pilots whooping it up. However this time, I did get to exchange cards with the new Consulate for the US Embassy. We’ve been busy trying to strategize my path forward. I’ve got links to every American company with an office in this little metropolis, and enrolled in language school so I can put on that marketing envizage charm. Yes… school, one of my least favourite things at one of my least favourite time of day. Oh come on, suck it up buttercup it’s only five 4-hour mornings per week, for six weeks straight! Minus one middle-of-nowhere France family holiday for yet another random French ‘vacance’: Toussaint. Alrighty then. Viva la France!
Last Friday we went to Paris, so I could frolic with my two favourite men for the weekend. ✈️ Untrue to form, we all stayed in the tiniest little hobbit shoebox sized hotel. We made the best of it with plenty of cocktails. We walked the Champs Élysées, drank wine on the lawn by the Eiffel Tower, ‘popped’ through Montmartre and took enough selfies to prove it was a lovely weekend. A couple days later I decided to randomly join my Canadian for an overnight in Madrid. There really is something to this whole European thing!
Our grande vacances (as the French call it) in July/August were fabulous. Two weeks ‘just the two of us’ in Paris and then my New York. Upper East Side bliss which my frenchman fell immediately in love with. When we returned to Toulouse, we spent the end of grande vacances with a week in my Bordeaux flat, followed by a road-trip to Saint-Chamond avec all quatre enfants. We ended our summer by saying a final goodbye to Bordeaux with an incredible Joël Robuchon farewell dinner. Then packed up the Renault to start our new life, together, in Toulouse. We are settling now into our routine of salads, spinning, school, visa comprehension and work… usually always ending with a thrilling episode of ‘House of Cards’. ❤️
The path forward is looking more clear pour moi! And yes, it is so annoying to be one of those ‘we’ people. “We went to Paris”, “we’ve been busy”, “we stayed in”… and on that note I think we are very excited about this coming weekend in Roma!!! ✈️ exactly one year later.
Miss you!!! Love you! Mean it.
Hilarious what some people will ‘bitch’ about!
Paris with my guys…
