Wander & Nest

We made the nearly 40 hour journey from Christchurch to Toulouse earlier this week. That’s right 40 hours! 26 of which were actual flying time – 11 hours from Christchurch to Singapore, 13 hours from Singapore to Frankfurt, and 2 hours from Frankfurt to Toulouse, and the rest was layovers, transit, etc. Whew, it was long but we made it. And Mara was an absolute champ! In true Mara fashion she only slept maybe 8 hours in total during the whole trip but thanks to her new iPad, the inflatable toddler plane seat, so many stickers, and essentially an endless supply of chocolate, she was a pretty happy camper. She only had a few tantrums when she had to sit with a seatbelt on. So all in all, huge win! Also Wylie and I took showers at the Frankfurt airport for 6 euros each. Amazing! Highly recommend!

Traveling with a 2 year old is no joke, but luckily so many people get it and were extra nice to us. Mara even got a picture in the cockpit after our last flight.

The first 2 days in Toulouse are a bit of a blur. There’s a 12 hour difference between NZ and Central Europe, which may be the worst possible?? Luckily we didn’t have too much going on in the first few days. Mara was so tired that she put herself down for a nap for the first time in her 2.5 years of life. She said she was really tired, climbed on her bed and fell asleep for almost 3 hours. No sound machine, no dark room, no stories or nap routine, just passed out! Of course that meant we were wide awake at 4am with breakfast at toys in bed, but hey we’ll allow it during this adjustment period.

We’re staying in a great apartment in the hypercentre of Toulouse. It’s so French and reminds us so much of our little flat in Paris. It even smells the same. It’s so familiar and comforting to be in an apartment in the city and exciting and new to be doing it with a toddler. The apartment has 2 whole bedrooms and is whopping 80 sq meters (850 sq feet), which feels huge compared to our 30 sq meter Paris apartment, tiny compared to the massive house in Christchurch with so much unusable space, so really just about the right amount of space for us right now. (Yes that’s an American flag above Mara’s bed, and no we did not bring it with us lol).

We’re on the 5th floor (6th by US standards) of a busy tree lined street, but we’re high up enough that the street noise isn’t bad. And since it seems like we are chasing winter this year, we’re back to short days where we see the sunrise at 8am. This morning’s was a stunning pink sunrise in the appropriately named Pink City.

We did various errands and exploring in our first few days. Of course EVERYTHIING is accessible within 2-15 minutes by foot. It’s amazing! My and Wylie’s French is not great, but also not quite as bad as I thought it would be. Way fewer people speak English compared to Paris, but they also seem pretty patient with us and I think they generally speak slower so it’s a bit easier to understand.

It will take us a a bit more time to really find our groove here in this new place, but we’re super excited about this new chapter!