Home Sweet Home

Why did the Canada goose cross the road?  To let us know we were back in Canada.  Nico and I went for a bikeride along the river the first week back and I was blown away by it’s beauty.  The family of geese made it that much more special.  I tried to get Nico to capture it with an awesome photo…it’s not bad for a 5 year old I guess.

We’ve already been back for 1 month now.  Back to work, back to school, back to running around to activities, for groceries, for milk, to fill up van, to birthday parties and football games, dental appointments and year end school concerts…I feel like we haven’t stopped since we got back and that being in France for 5 months was just a dream.

We often get asked if we’re glad to be home and the answer is yes.   Not that we didn’t like France; we loved it and easily could have stayed a while longer.  But once you start thinking of home it’s like there is a psychological shift.  The excitement and thrill of being in a new place now changes and you begin to long for the familiarities of home.  One of the great things about traveling for such a long time is that when you return to your everyday life it seems exciting again for a little while.  It also helps to show up during spring when the weather is beautiful and everything is green and in bloom.  I loved coming home to the scent of lilacs and we got to experience that twice this year!  I don’t think we would have been so thrilled had we arrived in -30 degree weather.

Here is a little recap of our trip home which went as perfectly and smoothly as it possibly could especially when compared to the way over.  No barfing on an escalator, no nearly missing our flight, no near death experiences…I guess we’ve become seasoned travelers!

This photo was taken in front of our house in Uzès.   5 months of our lives packed into these 5 suitcases and 5 backpacks.  My dad suggested we throw at lease 3 of these bad boys in the Mediterannean ocean to make it easier on us. 

Thankfully we didn’t have to do that because our landlady offered to drive us and our luggage to the train station the same way she magically appeared that first day we arrived in Nîmes.  She is one awesome lady!

Here we are hanging around at the Gare in Avignon.  There were a few nice piano performances to entertain us.

One last glimpse of the beautiful french countryside from the train.

We stayed in Paris for 2 nights and rented a hotel room in the airport.  There really wasn’t any other option because we simply needed to park those 5 giant suitcases before they took us down.  We settled into our hotel, had a fancy meal at the McDonald’s in the airport (see how cultured we’ve become?) and turned in early.

Cheers to a licensed McDonalds.

The next day we headed into Paris for a fairly easy going day.

I spy with my little eye La tour d’Eiffel.

La Sorbonne… I wonder if one of these guys will attend one day.

After picnicking in the park the kids rented these little sailboats and pushed them around the pool with a bamboo stick.

We walked down Les Champs-Élysées and had a quick glance at L’Arche de Triomphe, the only major landmark we took in that day.

The next morning we grabbed some croissants and coffees for breakfast.  The kids were pretty happy to share with this little bird.

Then it was back to the airport for the final trip.

This is what an 8 hour layover after a 9 hour flight looks like in case you’re wondering.  We found a cosy corner in the Minneapolis airport and grabbed a few zzz’s.  I have no idea who took these photos but I’m glad they did.

Once in Saskatoon, Shamus’s parents were there to greet us at the airport and drive us back home.  They had our fridge stocked and our beds freshly made.  Our wonderful neighbors had taken care of our lawn and it has never looked better.  I don’t know why they stopped…