It's Been One Year and La Rentrée

We celebrated the one year anniversary of our move to France at the end of August at the Pyrénées-Hô adventure park, which is located on the French side of the Pyrenees Mountains, an hour from our apartment in Spain.  Besides having an unfortunate name when anglicized, we had the best time scaling rocks and zip-lining.  I had so much fun that I didn't have time to take any pictures, so you'll just have to believe me.  Even after one year, I still think it's so cool to be in Spain and then decide, "oh, why don't we go to France for the day."

Playdates in Paris

Here's what we've been up to since we got back to Paris two weeks ago.  (It's long, so brace yourself.):

Jiu-Jitsu

The kids had their first jiu-jitsu class this morning.  The good part is they have the same "professors" and classmates as last year.  It was really good to see the same faces again and was la rentrée that, selfishly, I needed since we decided to take the kids out of their previous school.  The bad part is, for those of you who have visited us in Paris and come along to jiu-jitsu  it's at the same (far) dojo in the 14th.  I had a fleeting hope that it might move back to the dojo in the 5th where the kids had their first class, but no such luck.  I know I shouldn't cry over spilled milk, but that dojo in the 5th was on a direct metro line from our apartment and very close to my mother-in-law's apartment.

Our next visitor

We've had 11 guests stay with us since we moved to France.  Uncle Adam arrives on Wednesday and is kindly lugging a bunch of stuff from the U.S. to Paris that we ordered off of Amazon and Zappos.  I can't wait to try on my new ankle boots.  (Merci beaucoup mon beau frère!)  Since this will be his second time visiting us, does he count as number 12?

Things around the neighborhood

Weather has been great and the annual La Parisienne run was this morning.  Our neighborhood and part of the Champ de Mars was fenced off with tents for the race.

Back to school

C'est la rentrée.  The children started at a new school on Monday.  Peanut entered CE2 and Rocky in CP (that's 3rd grade and 1st grade for us Americans).  They are going to a bilingual Montessori school that was started by an American woman about 30 years ago.  Our commute to the new school is a bit long for my taste; 20 minutes as opposed to 10 minutes last year.  While I was profusely sweating as I scooted across the Champ de Mars, I dreamed of moving to a closer apartment.  We'll see.  It's just the first week, so Jared and I have been tweaking the commute to find wide sidewalks with few pedestrians on smaller (ie quieter) streets so we can scoot easily without, literally, running into anyone.

Speaking of school, the kids like their teachers and are getting to know the kids there.  There are 3 boys and 8 girls, ages 6-9.  Peanut and Rocky are in the same class.  Rocky has made 2 friends - a Russian/French girl who speaks mostly French and an American girl (half Caucasian/half Pakistani) who only speaks English.  There is one boy whom Peanut might be friends with.  He hasn't hit it off with any of the kids, but also doesn't seem to dislike any of them either.  I asked Peanut, "who are the 3 people to talked to at school today?" and he answered, the two teachers and my sister.  Yikes.  Both kids already like this school more than their previous school because 1) the teachers don't yell and 2) everything seems easy.  I believe the kids will not have any homework, or very little of it.  I've been brainwashed for over 2 years thanks to the French schools in TX and Paris that this kinda freaks me out.  Although if I remember correctly, I don't think I had homework in 3rd grade.

We're official

Some super news ... 1) Jared and I were both approved for new cartes de sejour (like a long-term visa renewal to live in France) on Thursday and 2) on Friday, got new French driver's licenses!  The French bureaucracy, which I'd like to change to, "bureauCRAZY", is unlike anything I've seen in the States.  The French are notorious for listing 12 required items to bring to an appointment, yet asking for 15.  We spent hundreds of euros on translating documents into French, made tons of photocopies, reviewed our dossiers multiple times to make sure we had everything, stressed out a lot, and second-guessed items they might want.  But all that hard work paid off in the end -- we've been officially approved to stay in France for one more year.

Hiking the Spanish Mountains

After Vigo, we flew back to Barcelona then drove 4 hours to a ski resort town in the Pyrenees mountains of Spain, in hopes of finding "the" Spanish day camp.  One that the the kids would like and is in a place where Jared and I would also have things to do.  And, by golly, I think we've struck gold.  But more on that later.  

On the last day of camp, which was Friday, parents were invited to join the counselors and kids on a hike.  Even thought I hadn't packed any athletic clothes for our 4, or is it 5, or is it 8 weeks vacation, I thought it would be fun and figured I'd be fine given the hike was planned for kids ages 4-12.  So, I put on my sportiest outfit and followed these Spaniards up the mountain.

For a city girl, Rocky is quite the little hiker.

Peanut is a little billy goat.  He's at the top waving his hat at us.

John (in red) and Peanut became instant friends over their Pokemon Go addiction.

Our reward at the top of the mountain, a dammed lake.  Cold and refreshing after a long climb up.
Bathing suits were optional for a few of these kids.  While I'm used to my relatives swimming in their skivvies and little cousins going totally commando, seeing Westerners do this still (pleasantly) surprises me.  

Our group heads down the mountain.

Thanks to my bike ride in Switzerland, I recognized the sounds of those bells in the distance.

Rocky picks wild raspberries.  My very picky daughter tasted this fruit for the first time in her life (she's 5!) and is now asking to have raspberries for dessert.  It only took a long hike to make her thirsty and hungry enough to try them.

I've never been to the mountains in the summer and realize what I've been missing my whole life.

Family photo op.  We're just missing Peanut who was way ahead of us. 

The hike took us about 4 hours and was really fun.  I trekked along with a couple of 4 year olds, and I could easily tell that it wasn't their first time doing this hike.  Peanut and Rocky were also quite agile and made the excursion look easy, even though they're totally new to hiking.  Jared and I didn't do too badly either.  Although, by dinner time, I was ready to turn in.  Peanut and Rocky were bouncing around like usual.  The way they were acting, you'd have no idea the day they had.

It was a great day and made me appreciate the beauty of nature even more.