We had the amazing opportunity of moving to France for six months. We packed up the kids, locked up the house, and voila! It was a challenging, yet fulfilling experience. COVID hit on our second month there, but through it all we learned, grew, and made memories. Here are some of our experiences as a family, as parents, as foreigners living abroad.
On June 2nd, 2020, France entered its second phase of deconfinement, which authorizes certain hotels and restaurants to open with limitations. Borders are still (generally speaking) closed and some museums and monuments are either preparing to reopen or opened with limitations (restricted number of visitors, use of mask, hand sanitizers everywhere, and interactive exhibits closed). Quick note, this is likely changing by June 15, when the country enters another stage of deconfinement, and I’m pretty sure they will be fully…
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“There is no such thing as normal when in a pandemic.”
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Letting go isn’t as easy as a blockbuster cartoon soundtrack makes it sound.
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This only scratches the surface of the different things on a French menu. From raw steak to cow’s tongue to essentially every part of the pig’s body, the French live by the motto “waste not.”
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Ha! I’ve been waiting for this post! I’m not a foodie, but I am a big fan of trying new things and eating good food. I learned it from my dad. He was an adventurous eater and traveler, and he taught me that you need to try everything at least once before you decide which way to go. Personally, I’m more of a try-ALMOST-everything-at-least-once kind of girl, and that’s what I pass on to my kids. With my three children…
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Praise is given honestly and rarely, thus making it the more special. Not every criticism is constructive, and teachers are often stern and make upset, yet funny, faces with grimaces and scowls.
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Good question… But first…wondering how schools are set up in France? Well, this is what I learned so far: Formal education in France is divided into three main stages: primary education, secondary education, and higher education. Within this you have preschools, or pre-maternelles and maternelles, which are not obligatory, and the mandatory école (elementary), collèges (middle), and lycée (high). Usually, children start mandatory education when they turn 6. The école (elementary) is divided into five grades, counting backwards: 11th, 10th,…
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Quirky, charming, and old towns make the historian in me GIDDY!
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We walked around the neighborhood, stumbled upon the Sorbonne, argued hysterically with each other in the middle of pedestrian traffic, and made our way back to the hotel feeling out of place, tired, and emotionally drained.
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How about packing your bags and moving your three kids to France, for seven months, in the middle of the school year? What if they didn’t speak French at all, and your French is still rusty? Well… we did just that. A TEMPORARY career opportunity presented itself to our family, and we took it. And so, the Brazilians who moved to the US and had kids, now moved, with said kids, to France. Et VOILA. So far, we’ve had hilarious,…
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