As The Broom Sweeps

I had no idea that hiring a nanny/maid would end up being like a soap opera (my moms favorite: As The World Turns or is it Young & The Restless) that I get to tune into daily. I just figured it would make my life easier and it does in a lot of ways but I also wasn’t aware of the baggage that comes with it.

I guess when you think about it, you are bringing a total stranger into your life and they have issues. These issues are normal people issues but I just figure like any other job, you leave your crap at the door and do your job without affecting the rest of the environment. This does not seem to be the case with domestic help.

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Day 3 Clermont: Puy de Dome

I actually don’t have much to say about Puy de Dome. We took the drive to go visit Puy de Dome, which is an inactive volcano located in Clermont. The day we visited there was a layer of fog on the summit that was so thick you could not see 10 feet in front of you. From the pictures online it looks amazing but sad to say we didn’t get to experience the views. Here are some pictures from the ride up to the top.

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Final Thoughts On France

1. The metro is the most convenient form of travel when trying to see all of the tourist sites in Paris.
2. Three weeks of baguette, cheese and pastries in the morning is enough to last me the rest of the year. (Notice I didn’t say wine!!)
3. My biggest complaint about France is all of the graffiti everywhere. It really takes away from the beauty of the cities in my opinion but I guess kids will be kids and vandalize and there probably isn’t much that can be done about that.

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Day 1 Clermont: Jardin Le Coq & L’aventure Michelin

Chris leaves for work at 730am and Killian and I leave the little room we are staying in at the same time. I figure I will just walk around until I find something and hopefully not get so lost to where I can’t find my way back. Not far from where we are staying is a street map of the town. After a minute or so of trying to find my location, I see the Jardin Le Coq is off of my street but since I do not know which direction to walk on my street I just take off. I walk for a while and do not see a garden but I do see an old man and I figure he probably knows. I ask in my best French where the garden is located and he rattles off the answer in French very quickly but to my surprise I actually understood about 75% of what he said. Turns out I had been walking in the wrong direction but I figured I had a fifty-fifty chance of that happening.

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Our Not So Pleasant Adventure In Clermont Ferrand

We have had a bit if a rocky start to our stay in Clermont. We arrived around 7pm by train on Monday and took a taxi to the rental car place to find out that it closes at 6pm. Chris is upset because he has to be at work at 8am and the office doesn’t open until then. At this point we have spent 20 euros to go about one mile. I try to be positive and tell him not to worry because I know his work will understand!

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Carolina On My Mind

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“In my mind I’m going to Carolina. Can’t you see the sunshine, can’t you just feel the moonshine?
Ain’t it just like a friend of mine to hit me from behind? Yes, I’m going to Carolina in my mind.”
-James Taylor

As I sit on the train to our final destination, Clermont Ferrand, I am taken back home with the help of my tunes. I know I’m on a train and I am sitting beside a stranger but at the same time as I close my eyes it almost feels as if I am cruising in my car with the windows rolled down, zipping down the back roads to Grammies jamming to Eric Church, Hootie and Tom Petty. I know I have a long way until I get home but for a split second the homesickness subsides and I don’t have to worry about what will happen in the next 3.5 years or what I am missing back where all of our loved ones are. It’s a really nice feeling.

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Day 6 French Riviera: Nice

On our last full day in the French Riviera we took it easy and strolled around Nice.

We walked to the port, visited the local market again, stopped for a cappuccino since Killian was passed out (again), played on the beach until a big storm came and ended the day sharing an ice cream cone. What a nice way to end our time here!

Day 5 French Riviera: Winery Tours in Provence

We are in France and the one thing that we want to do is drink as much wine as we can stomach, not to excess but you know what I mean, because in Thailand wine is taxed at a very high rate. With that being said for a $6 USD bottle in the States you can pay $20 USD or more for the same bottle in Bangkok and to be honest I can’t bring myself to pay that much for crappy wine (although I had a friend tell me about a wine delivery service in Bangkok with great prices so maybe I will give that a try). Our trip to France didn’t really include “wine country” but so it turns out all of France is wine country! I did some research and I found stellar reviews on Azur Wine Tours.

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Day 4 French Riviera: Road Trip to Monaco & Monte Carlo

On our last day of the rental car (thank the Lord because my heart couldn’t take much more driving in France) we headed the opposite direction of Antibes and drove to Monaco along the coast road. Again it was beautiful and the little towns along the coast are so charming but sometimes traffic on the little coast road can be a bear. We get stuck in some standstill traffic for about 30 minutes and start to get a little nervous because we are sort of on a schedule. Our main purpose in going to Monaco is to go to Monte Carlo and see the beautiful casino, the one in the James Bond movies, and they are only open to tours in the morning and then open up for gambling starting at 2pm.

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Day 3 French Riviera: Road Trip to Antibes

Our third day in the French Riviera didn’t go as well as all of our other days traveling. Killian is currently cutting his four K9 teeth and good gravy is he in a bad mood. He won’t sleep because he hurts and I am sure he is sick of the pack and play and just wants to me home. We didn’t sleep the night before and we thought for Killian’s sake we would take it easy and just hangout during the morning around Nice and the beach and we were hoping he would take a nice long afternoon nap but that didn’t happen. During our walk along the beach in Nice we stumbled into old Nice where there is an amazing outdoor market with everything you can think of fish, fruit, meats, olives, spices, paintings, breads, flowers and cheese. Chris enjoyed himself and brought home a few tasty items. Killian passed out in the stroller so we thought we would take him home to nap but that didn’t last long. Ok so let’s go to the gardens at the Masse Museum, which is located right next to our apartment, to try and make my boy happy.

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