C'est la rentrée

It’s back to school (la rentrée) in France and at home. The first one in 20 some years that I am not going back in one capacity or another. It’s odd, but I’m getting used to it. (Sidenote: all these little well dressed French children running around in their new school duds are ADORABLE).

We’ve gotten quite a bit busier since last week. Sunday we went to Chartres to see the Cathedral. It was beautiful and the stained glass was quite impressive. It was a Sunday, and this being France, almost everything was closed. An exception being a creperie that Rick Steves recommended conveniently located (by coincidence, not by design) quite close to where we parked. We were so excited to go have a crepe after visiting the cathedral and climbing the belfry (see the Belgium post on mixing carbs and stairs – we decided it would be a better as a post-climb activity). The creperie closed at 2 as we found out when we walked in at 2:30. No crepes for us. I am eventually going to have to get used to the shop/resto hours and culture here...but it is driving me a bit nuts at the moment.

N started class this week and I got to meet some partners. I’ve found a woman who is going to help me polish up my French in exchange for me helping her with her English. We’ve decided to conduct our lessons while out and about. Today we went for a 3 hour long walk in the Fontainebleau forest. Thursday we take our lessons to Paris! Which also means I get a Starbucks visit!

I’m also keeping busy cooking and planning meals. We’ve planned a few meals with neighbours and classmates of N and I’m thrilled to get to buy all kinds of great produce to cook with. I don’t normally have the luxury of an hour plus to make dinner each night, so the two of us have been eating well. Exhibit A: dinner tonight.

The herb garden on my balcony is inspiring me to be all fancy "expat living in France" in the kitchen-esque, but as the Belgian plant-tending genes have skipped a generation, some of them have died before I even got the chance to use them. Like the basil plant I bought on Saturday survived 48 hours. Although, I maintain that that one was defective. I’m not a great gardener but that was a little extreme. (Sidenote 2: The day I bought the plant I emailed a good friend pledging the commitment I was going to make to keep the basil alive and that it would thrive under my care. Fail).