Wander & Nest

We’re already at the end of our 3 month stay in France. To say it has felt different than New Zealand is the absolute biggest understatement, but all for good reason.

Reason 1 – We didn’t have full time childcare or any childcare at all for 2/3 months. Thank goodness for Maggie and Sarah helping us out in February!

Reason 2 – After sabbatical we’re moving to Toulouse! Permanently! Or at least as permanently as things can be. So the last 3 months, and especially last 6 weeks, have been filled with so many logistics of getting established in Toulouse so we have a place to land when we return for good in August… starting the residency process, registering for health care, finding an apartment, furnishing said apartment, etc.

The urgency to do all of this now before we leave for 5 months for Sweden is all because we have to register Mara for school. Yes school in France starts at age 3! I was very freaked out when I first learned this, but then I realized it’s just State supported and funded daycare, which Mara would be in anyway. We want her to go to a regular French public school and registration begins in March which requires a home address, hence needing the apartment now. It was a lot to do, but we are so happy now that we did. We love our apartment (especially the view of the river!) and are excited to come back for the 2024 school year.

The whole crew of friends (Amanda, Sandrine, Jay, Sarah, Maggie, Finn and even Bao) contributed to our ikea assembly party! Thanks to them we got to spend a few nights in our new apartment before saying au revoir for now.

In our last two weeks we were covering some serious ground with logistics and activities. Sarah encouraged me to start a list, so here it is (and of course this doesn’t cover our normal work days which somehow also happened!):

• Thursday – Apartment inspection, got keys, furniture shopping, bought appliances
• Friday-Sunday visited Albi with the McMahon’s
• Monday – Appliance delivery, wifi install
• Tuesday – Wylie went to Paris to pick up our Swedish visas (9 hours on the train in 1 day!)
• Wednesday – IKEA shopping day
• Thursday – Plumber appointment to fix water heater, IKEA delivery
• Friday – Wrong furniture delivered, arranged exchange with ikea, Sandrine and Amanda arrived
• Saturday – Hung out with Amanda and Sandrine, Ikea assembly party attempt 1, Friends dinner
• Sunday – Ikea assembly party part 2 with all the friends
• Monday – Ikea corrected delivery, mattress delivery, final Ikea assembly day, started moving from airbnb to new apartment
• Tuesday – Moving day! Packed and moved all stuff to new apartment, cleaned airbnb, bought a microwave and carried it across town to our new apartment
• Wednesday – Relatively normal day, no deliveries, appointments, etc. Farewell dinner with Jay and Sarah
• Thursday – Packed for Sweden
• Friday – Moved to Sweden

So that’s a wrap on France for this sabbatical year, but really it’s just the beginning. Now on to Sweden!