What School Lunch in France Can Teach us Back Home in the U.S.
Here’s an interesting article I found on WordPress, again about France’s school lunches. What School Lunch in France Can Teach us Back Home in the U.S..
Category Archives: kids
France’s Gourmet School Lunches
As I searched Youtube looking for something interesting to show my high school students about the differences between French and American schools, I ran across this video about the French school lunch program. The contrasts between their lunch system and our’s in America are astonishing! French children are taught from the very beginning, at home […]
Crossing all my fingers and toes
Contract #4, Let’s do this already! My last post started out, “Moving to France in 24 days, and long-stay visa”. That was on May 14, and two contracts ago. The funny thing is that there are a lot of people interested in our house, but for reasons way out of our control (nothing to do […]
French “livret de famille” and Double Nationality
After what seems like months of sending papers and documents back and forth to the French Consulate in Chicago, we finally received our new “livret de famille” via Express Mail yesterday!! We also received French birth certificates for our two little ones, and now it’s time for a celebration because they are now officially both FRENCH and AMERICAN!! This is progress. Time to order the French passports.
Now I just have to work on French nationality for myself…. I really should get started. All of this should really be helpful once we get to France.
On another note, we had a showing of our house on Saturday, and another one tonight (everyone cross your fingers for us that these will be the people who fall in love with our house and put down a contract right away).
Top Ten Reasons to Live in France
If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast. -Ernest Hemingway
Many people have been asking me why we want to move to France. There are many reasons, and none of them are because we don’t like living in the United States. For our family, it just seems right. For one thing, we have the easy option of living in France legally. My husband is French, so nationality for the kids and me isn’t a problem.
When moving to France is a real possibility, you tend to think about it more seriously. For the last 14 years, we’ve been spending every summer there, all the time wondering if we could make it work for us.
Here are my TOP TEN reasons for wanting to relocate to France:
Reason # 1
Quality of life
Reason # 2
Work to live, not live to work. Taking time to enjoy life, spending time with family, longer lunches and dinners. Slower pace of living. Sundays are what they used to be in the United States forty years ago.
Reason # 3
Healthier lifestyle, pedestrian friendly cities, beaches, mountains, walks in vineyards.
Reason # 4
High-quality health care system, affordable to all, low cost prescription drugs.
Reason # 5
French gastronomy, locally grown fresh produce markets, bread, cheese, olive oil, Mediterranean diet.
Reason # 6
Easy travel to diverse locations (other European countries); children grow up (with the possibility of) being exposed to more foreign cultures. And no matter where you live in France, Paris is just a quick train ride away.
Reason # 7
Some of the best, and most affordable wine regions in the world. Summer wine festivals in the Languedoc are fabulous.
Reason # 8
Mediterranean climate: The weather may not be so fantastic in every part of France year round, but in the Languedoc, it really is quite pleasant most of the time.
Reason # 9
Manners are still important in France, and the vast majority of children are raised to show respect. This is very important to me.
Reason # 10
Comparatively low violent crime rate. We are not planning to live in a big city, but even in Paris I feel safe walking alone at night.
Traveling to France with small children? Pas de problème!
It’s almost scary how much I’ve heard (or overheard) people saying that they’re not going to travel this summer. Why? It’s not because of the economy or because they’re afraid of terrorist attacks. They aren’t going to travel because their kids are too small. While I haven’t given advice where advice is not requested, I […]
What’s for dinner tonight? Julia Childs’ steak au poivre. Bon appétit!
See, if we were living in France, my kids wouldn’t be hungry for dinner at 6:00. We wouldn’t be having dinner until at least 7 or 7:30. BUT, they wouldn’t go to bed at 7:30 either! So it’s a trade off. Hectic around here at 5:00 trying to figure out what to cook for dinner […]
Maman, how could you forget the goûter???
Oh heaven forbid…. 4 o’clock is creeping up slowly and I’ve obviously forgotten about the goûter. My kids are going to riot. The goûter. The God-given right to all children big and small. 4 o’clock snack. Don’t be mistaken, the goûter is not to be had at 3:45 or even at 5 till 4. Nope, […]
Allow me to introduce myself to the world of blogging.
A little about me… I’m from Louisiana, which may somehow explain my obsession with all things French. Not living there anymore, moved away when I was 23 to see what it was like “away from the south”. If anything, I’ve come to have a much greater appreciation for most things southern than I ever had […]
