Author: Sooner Girl

(you really should play this while reading…hokey, yes, but so apropos!)

Wednesday evening, March 21, 7:30 pm.

Here I am, riding the rails from Paris to Clermont Ferrand, and almost at a loss for words about my first trip ‘home’ to the USA and back!  There’s a gorgeous sunset out of my window seat, and my compartment mates are nice and silent…what a great way to decompress!  I’m liking this train travel!

So, like a movie that shows the ending first and then short clips in reverse chronology, here’s the adventure du jour…

WHAT DID WE ALL DO BEFORE GOOGLE/PHONES/GPS???  Last night was going fantastically well – I made the flight on standby (yea!), First Class upgrade on flight home, bags arrived (although one was unzipped – grrrrr) and no customs questions at all.  In fact, they waived me through.

THEN – DISASTER ON ARRIVAL!  I had NO cell service, no “wee fee,” no breadcrumb trails. Couldn’t find my way to the Metro without the app, took a cab ($$$ or should I say €€€ – highway robbery expensive) to the WRONG train station (Gare de Lyon was BEAUTIFUL; however, I needed to be at Paris Gare Bercy!).  [No cell service to verify which station. And I couldn’t remember.]

So I walked a kilometer in the wrong direction schlepping a 48 lb. suitcase, a 22 lb. carry-on, a 15 lb. fully loaded backpack, and a purse….and I was praying that the suitcase wheels didn’t fall off in revolt of the weight and the seriously uneven pavement. Trust me, it was very likely! Managed to “recalculate” the route to the correct train station using my masterful command of the French language (ha ha), buy a ticket, and with 10 minutes to spare, hopped on — the wrong train car!* After getting settled and unpacking my computer, a nice Frenchman showed up and wanted his seat. Two minutes to go, repacked the 90 lbs. of albatross, said my “pardon, pardon” in French as I stepped on passengers’ toes, and relocated myself and my gear to the next train car….and then promptly passed out!

All’s well that ends well….and Tanner is calling the taxi to take me home to the apartment tonight, so I should collapse by midnight!

Brendan and I were able to steal a few hours together to have dinner several times in Atlanta (both within and outside of the airport terminal) and also had a few moments to see Ryan, as well. (Ryan is his long-time friend/college roommate /groomsman /Delta colleague.)

Ryan’s parents are living in Prague for work.  We are living in France for work and going to Prague in May.  Such a tiny, tiny world… (and see?  We aren’t the only crazies who move 5,000 miles for their job!)

With six hours to kill at Atlanta’s HartsfIeld Jackson – AKA the world’s busiest airport, 250,000 PEOPLE A DAY – I started hoofing at Terminal A and concluded at Terminal F, looking at all the shops and restaurants along the way…including the many Airport Art exhibitions. Did you know there is a tropical rain forest walkway, complete with bird and frog sounds, between Terminals A and B? There’s a lot to see if you don’t take the plane-train.  It’s a beautiful $4M walk-through work of art.

Doesn’t matter how much time we have with our kids, it’s never ever EVER enough!

Robert and Leslie were kind enough to host me all weekend in Augusta and include me in a VERY fun dinner party with their friends and dogs.  Be sure to try Fitch & Fifth – it’s fabulous. And I learned a new song – “You’re Welcome!” (right click if you want to sing along!)

And I had my fix of Rotel dip!!!  (Thank you, Rob and Les!) I haven’t ‘pined’ too much over not-available-in-France foods, but I did have a fantastic steak, baked potato (no BPs in France that we’ve found so far), root beer and, of course, Jamil’s in Tulsa….

Tulsa was two weeks of a speeding bullet. Clocks run much faster in Tulsa, apparently, because the days just sped by.  De De and I kept the coffee growers in Columbia in business, and I was so happy to see Larry and Myrna, and Cheryl, too! We loved on the Aunts – Joan, Marcia, Ann, Carol, Eleanor, and Jody; had a rare dinner with cousins; visited with Jim, Cindy Duck, and Brett…and I hadn’t forgotten how to DRIVE!

And I shopped online!  Zappos delivers free both ways – but not to France.  Mom had never seen anyone order 12 (okay, maybe it was 15) pairs of shoes ‘just to try on.’  Ha ha.  (This is part of the reason that the suitcases are so heavy – mea culpa.)  (No, I didn’t keep them all!) Clothing in France is très chère, and I needed to stock up some appropriate spring/summer gear….and SERIOUS WALKING SHOES.

When visiting Europe, shoes are the number one most important thing to consider!  They must carry you for long distances!  So throw those cute little slippers out la fenêtre and bring on the Vionics!  Pricey.and.completely.worth.every.penny.

I had a marvelous time, even though three continuous weeks is the longest time that mon mari et moi have been separated in years.  Now I jump back into Wonderland, knowing that I’ve forgotten every French word I ever knew, and wondering if I’ll know where I am when I wake up tomorrow morning…or afternoon…

Next trip: In 8 days, head for Amsterdam and South Holland for a four day weekend, IF Air France is not striking with the railway unions! (And they say that they are…)

Next task: Getting our French drivers’ licenses ASAP…at the Prefecture, of course!  (think ominous music here)  And French lessons, to begin (again) soon!

Mais maintenant, BACK TO FRANCE!  Let the journey continue!

I miss you all and have pangs in my heart – it was really so difficult to leave you.

Love, Mindy

PS – Made it home late.  Note to self – NEVER PACK THIS MUCH EVER AGAIN, regardless of the reason, unless we hire a sherpa!

*Re the train cars – it’s just wrong to have two first class train cars next to each other with the same seat numbers.  This is the 2nd time I’ve been in the right class, the right seat, on the wrong car!  Welcome to France!

 This is where I grew up in a close knit, competitive family (count ’em, butter bean), with Dad, Mom, Larry, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.

Being back here is like being a giant string of taffy – being pulled this way and that, trying to see everyone and make everyone happy!

And being here has made me reflective.  A close friend of mine told me a story about his son, Charlie.  The father and his wife had been measuring their son and daughter’s growth for several years with a pencil against a wood framed doorway in their house.  The son, Charlie, wrote a fifth grade essay about “The Trim.”  The trim on the door, it turns out, was the symbol of the love that was embedded in those penciled lines, as this family grew and melded together into a strong tapestry.  The house may change, but the trim goes with you.

Being in Tulsa with my first family is wonderful, and I can’t wait to see my own family in Georgia soon, as well as dear friends in South Carolina.  All of you make up the trim of Tanner’s and my life, the interwoven threads that tell our story, make us strong, make us celebrate, make us cry, make us pull together harder – and even when we are apart from each other, our lives are inexplicably woven into colorful lifelines that multiply and create our own patterns and markings on the door.

France is many land and nautical miles away, but really, it’s just another embroidery life thread.  [Maybe it’s a FRENCH KNOT!  🙂  hahahahahaha]

So happy to be with you all,

Mindy

Hey there!  (How quickly we revert to ‘Southern!’)

More adventure! Traveled back to the USA to visit ma famille et mes amies…taxi to the station, train to Paris Bercy, walk to the Metro, subway to Denfert-Rochereau to connect with the RER train to Charles de Gaulle aeroport…DELTA ONE (#SPOILEDFORLIFE – can you say lie flat seats on a 10 hour flight?!) to Atlanta, more shenanigans through customs and immigration, and then straight to Mex with Brendan!  Ahhhhhhhhh.  Real Mexican American enchiladas.  <grin>

Disorienting universe shift – step OUT of our new home, step OUT of France, step INTO the USA, step BACK into my childhood home and city.  Feels completely mental!

But it’s awesome to be in Tulsa, Oklahoma (Mom, Myrna, Larry, Cheryl, Joan, the ‘aunts’), where the wind comes sweeping down the plain (click to sing along)…much more wind here than in Chicago, which is mis-awarded the label of ‘The Windy City!’  Soon back to Atlanta (Brendan & Soraya!), to Greenville, South Carolina (FRIENDS!), and Augusta, Georgia (Robert & Leslie!).  Whirlwind trip!

Brendan “popped in” from Atlanta just for lunch and a quick trip to the casino, with a stop at Braum’s, of course!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Already hit the grocery store for all the ‘staples’ that we just don’t have in France…Liquid Smoke, Noxema, meat tenderizer!  HAHA.  Such first-world problems!  And SHOES…NEVER thought this would happen, but gone are my days of cute shoes.  At least for now.  I need shoes to withstand the cobblestones of Europe.  Not pretty, but 100% essential!

Have you ever heard the axiom that you are never staying still, but either moving forward or backward?  I can feel my French vocabulary slipping away on a daily basis, being currently immersed in English!  🙁  I’m attempting to read a ‘young adult’ French translation of Agatha Christie’s The Body in the Library, trying to maintain!

Three and ½ weeks before mon marie and I leave for Amsterdam and Keukenhof, South Holland.  SPRING!

Fun Facts:  The average French person eats 500 snails each year.  [They can have mine.]  And the French people consume 11.2 billion glasses of wine each year.  [I’ll drink to that!]

Enjoy these last weeks of winter….

À bientôt!

Mindy

Titus 2:11 For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to ALL PEOPLE  [Even those weird neighbors that trash their yard…or those hateful protesters…or that guy-person in the 5” high heels I saw in downtown Tulsa in the Brady district…]

This is what we’ve come to expect about EVERYTHING in France!

Because there’s no shortcut, no easy path, no road map, no playbook!  Just sink – or swim!

I heard a new term this week – “Cultural Fatigue.”  Makes sense to me!  When every interaction is accompanied by a sense of “Do I know the right words? Do they understand me? Will it work?,” and being on high alert 100% of the time, it makes you emotionally and physically exhausted!

Vagabond Journey says the continuous course corrections of switching cultures wear you out.  “They make you lose your bearings in a place, and it takes energy to find them again. You cannot travel on auto-pilot, you can never just ” act” … you must think first then act, always. Being challenged in what would be the simplest of interactions at home … wears you out. Facing the same challenges day after day creates fatigue.”

After our Visas expired in January (because apparently three months wasn’t enough time for them to do the paperwork we had submitted), and our EXTENDED Visas were issued (and even a French boss from work had to get involved because the French bureaucracy couldn’t get it together), we FINALLY received our Titre de Sejours (long-term foreign residents permits) yesterday – so we can officially travel in and out of France until October 2020.  And we were LUCKY!  Our permits were randomly issued for three years…several other expats’ permits were granted for only one year and they have to renew it every single year.  Same rigamarole.  600 euros later (expatriation isn’t cheap!) and one more thing checked off of our list…

Speaking of parler le français – it’s coming along…

You try saying that three times very quickly!

All that being said….who gets to do this?

 

Love,

Mindy

Beautiful Vichy, France 

We had a lovely winter day trip with Gilles and Lucienne to Vichy, a beautiful small city not far from us, population ~28,000, that is synonymous with Belle Epoch architecture, thermal healing waters, Napoleon III, 1900’s decadence, and the unoccupied southern French government that colluded with the Nazis in WWII.*

This blog doesn’t intend to cover all of this territory – so if you want the full version, you probably ought to Google it. I’m focusing on the famous Vichy thermal waters (Part One) and the gorgeous architecture of the Belle Epoch (Part Two).

PART ONE – The Waters

This is an important scene at the end of Casablanca ~ Louis realizes that the right thing to do is to join Rick and fight against the Vichy French government that is aligned with the Nazis.  He pours himself a glass of water, realizes it’s “Vichy” water, and tosses the bottle into the trash can and kicks it away.  I never noticed the significance of this before!  

  FIELD TRIP!  

Six of us took the Flix Bus to Lyon for a ‘girls’ day out’ of culture, couture, gastronomy, and a “whole ‘lotta walking.”  The Google Maps route said our planned route was a 10 km walk, but since we got a little mixed up [on multiple occasions], I’m SURE it was more than 10 km!

Lyon is lovely, even in February.  The weather cooperated; we were fortunate and didn’t have to break out the umbrellas once.  And bus transportation was the way to go!  For about $20 USD roundtrip, you had big roomy seats for a 2 1/2 hour drive each way, plush interior, WIFI, and a plug for cell phone charging. Heaven forbid we get disconnected at any time, you know!

Continue reading “Lyon, France ~ aka a Stairmaster Alternative”