17 Days In

After 36 days, we finally were able to unpack our suitcases.

That's a pretty big deal. At first you think, ha! this isn't so bad, wearing the same three outfits all the time and doing laundry. And then you think, ha! I'm sick of wearing the same thing every day. I guess what is most surprising is that it took me nearly a month to get to that point. On the other hand, new (to me, again) clothes!

We left California on New Year's Eve, and flew across the time zones to land in France on New Year's Day. We arrived in Nice without incident, our 100-plus pounds of luggage notwithstanding. We picked up our new (2km on the odometer!!) car, and everything actually fit.




On to the apartment we were staying in, in a beach town called Les Issambres, down the road a ways from its more famous villages of St Raphael in one direction and St Tropez in the other.

It was kind of our friend to lend us her apartment. The views were breathtaking and although it seemed like Northern California, or southern Italy, it was its own thing, this Cote d'Azur. Incredibly lovely. Also, I highly suspect it's a nightmare in the summer.

The apartment was too small for us to really settle in, but gave us a super place to just chill for a bit, after all the excitement of leaving Abu Dhabi and visiting family for Christmas in California. A chance for the two of us to just be -- something I feel like we hadn't done in a long time.

We took the opportunity to sightsee, visit the swanky neighbors, go to Monaco, find a place a little more permanent to live in. It was all pretty cool.

And now we have a place that allows us to unpack, to breathe easier, to settle in, for a time. We are in Nizas, a village of just under 600 people, outside of Pezenas, a city of around 10,000.

The house is too big for us, with four bedrooms and two bathrooms and an enormous backyard with a stunning view of the countryside, but everything else we found was much too small. No middle ground. On the other hand, maybe we will have visitors, which would be nice.

For the time being, I plan to get back to work, (I'm actually being paid!) stare out the slider windows at the view, and learn to live slowly.