And that's it! 2 years!
Flown by, they have.
And once again we leave a beautiful home, a friendly country, a great community set up, loads of friends, and go back...home. Which let's face it, is really not a bad option at all.
But first, the packing. And that is never always a barrel of laughs.
Yes, really. Half our books and all our plants are still in France. We had to remake the goal posts and the ping pong table, but drew the line at the trampoline (not the easiest job) and leave it all behind to gather dust in the garage, or be used (who can say?).
And I cannot underestimate the stress of packing and moving your whole life into boxes. AND we were leaving the house furnished but removing anything that is personal or sentimental is a big ask. Eventually, the estate agent also told us to remove the toothbrush holders and soap dispensers, so there you go.
And then the cleaning. Thank the sweet Lord in heaven above that my mum came to help us otherwise a) it would never have been done and b) it would never have been done properly. That woman counts for 5.
BUT, with the excuse of 'packing the house this week', we also got to hang out with our neighbours and friends to say goodbye. Ah, maybe that's why it took as long as it did...
And through it all, our children remained blissfully unaware, enjoying a full 2 weeks on the coast with friends (Small Fry and Fingerling) and mornings/afternoons/evenings/nights with friends (crevette). At least they got a summer.
We finally reunited to say goodbye to the house (from the front door: no-one was going in to mess up our newly washed floors and print free walls and door handles) and loaded what we had remaining (more on that later) in to our campervan. Read this as the only holiday the 5 of us had together this summer.
It was actually loads of fun. We drove along the Loire valley, staying in campsites that were half empty and enjoying the beauty of the area.
And here's the only downside: all that luggage we were carrying. We had 3 whole bags of things that should have gone with the movers but failed to. And 2 bags of wedding gear (read on).
We returned to Nantes for the final time to drop off the campervan and catch the train to Brest for the second time this summer (note, the car was also sold the week that we did the packing, which created a whole lot of fun later in the summer), this time for Pacotio and Eveline's wedding.
Which didn't all go to plan.
After around 1700 whatsapp messages in the week preceding the wedding, we woke on the day of the outdoor wedding to fog, rain and drizzle. But a lot of smiley faces.
My hair was ruined, but so was theirs:
And we had a lot of fun anyway.
And the day after the wedding was boiling, boiling hot. Which is why they needed 3 days to celebrate their wedding obvs.
And once they were well and truly married, we packed our 18 bags (we counted) and took the train from Brest to Paris to recover.
And from there the Eurostar to London (remember the no car thing)
At the British Library above. And in one of the 5 different beds we slept in, in about 6 days.
And that was it. The move was done. Physically at least.
And since then, we have started school:
Actually gone to my place of work:
Been the happiest cats ever (really truly, they actually seem happier here than Nantes)
And done some fun new things, like meet John Kerry (background of left photo - I did actually speak to him but no-one got a photo of it) and the Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero (right photo):
And also been back to London for a wedding.
And written one blog post when I should have spread them over 4.
