An Ode to Our First Family Home

We are leaving France.  And soon.  As in we are leaving TOMORROW.  We are leaving the home where we became a family, where we finally entered parenthood (and adulthood).  We have no more internet service chez nous so I’m forced to sit in McDo and try to breathe through all the distracting smells, munch on McMacarons and record my jumbled and confused thoughts these final hours abroad.

I’m sad to leave France, it’s true.  But I’m excited to return home – interested to see if US culture will seem foreign at all and what I will miss from France.  Most people I talk to back in the US see how exciting and adventuresome the last 3.5 years have been – but it’s also been really challenging.  Being an expat – and arriving with almost zero French to boot – is not always easy.  Add career ambitions, pregnancy, and motherhood into the mix and you have the makings of a frustrating and often disheartening (though simultaneously delightful) cocktail.

Paris is incredible.  The sheer amount of art you can take in on any given day is overwhelming and for someone like me is a dream come true.  I’ve learned more about art and its history by roaming the galleries and museums of this city than I did during all my years of undergraduate and graduate training combined.  Researching, writing, teaching (by way touring) I’ve gotten comfortable in this place and in the sense of possibility that accompanies it.  I love living in that possibility, it’s become my comfortable home.  Even if i don’t always exploit all the resources available to me, knowing they’re there is enough to make me happy.

But above all, it’s our little apartment in Versailles that I’ll miss the most.  We’ve never been so attached to a place and I suppose it’s in part because it’s a such a good find for the size, the location, and the price – but also because Little Mister had all his firsts here.  And he loves it soooo much.  He loves looking out the windows while he eats, he loves reading books in our reading corner, he loves walking the funky loop that connects, bedroom, bedroom, bathroom and halls.  And we love that the walls are concrete, so no sound gets to Little Mister when we have company and he’s snoozing soundly in his little bed.  Here are some of our favorite places, now all packed up, disassembled and on their way to California:

Our beloved reading nook, complete with the first rocking chair ever to rock Little Mister.

Here we are, making good use of that chair.  Many, many a book has been read in that chair.

And here Papa Ted enjoys the famed reading chair.

This reclaimed wood mantle is one of my favorite features of the apartment.  Granted, there’s a massive gap between it and the wall, filled in with packing tape and newspaper, and behind the mantle/fireplace contraption is a giant, gaping hole in the wall that mice used to sneak through.  But it’s pretty and even the janky quirks of this place we’ve grown to love.  It suits (suited?) us.

Wall facing Rue Marechal Foch, featuring my favorite poster that I bought in a tiny gallery in Krakow on our first trip through Europe my first year here.  Picture this: My dad, my sister, my husband and myself all driving from Paris to Krakow and back again.  My sister and I were in the back seat.  We drank beer (cuz you can do that in Europe) and had giggle fits like little kids.  Also, we put so much work into those damn livingroom walls, painting and repairing when we first moved in.  I’ll always remember me up on the ladder with my massive, pregnant belly silhouetted in the window.  I can only imagine what that hanging belly looked like from street level.

The view from our dining table on a mellow day.  Three times a week there’s a beautiful and bustling farmer’s market.  The other days there’s a sort of random bazaar selling clothes and kitchen wares that have to have fallen off a truck somewhere.  Little Mister loves to watch the action while he eats.  I think he’ll miss that most.

Little Mister’s bedroom as viewed from the linen closet hallway – or “Alice in Wonderland Room” as I like to call it.  The hallway is the only wallpapered room in the house and has sort of a random, magical feel because of that.

And a view above Little Mister’s bed.  He loves to touch the birds when he wakes up.  We’re taking them with us, so hopefully that’ll help him feel at home in his new SoCal bedroom, wherever it is.  I love the built-in bookshelf. And, a rarity in French apartments, the room had three – THREE – closets.

Not to mention the amazing bakery directly downstairs

The scent of bread was sometimes so thick in the morning I’d wake up famished at 4am.

And of course, down the street were the amazing and vast gardens at the chateau de versailles.

Finally, Little Mister – lovin’ his lion, lovin’ life, lovin’ our little home.

Home, you’ve been good to us and we’ve loved you.  We hope you’ll take good care of the next little family to live in you.  And hopefully, we’ll find an equally homey home on the next leg of our adventure. I’m exhausted and it’s late here at McDo, so bye for now and we’ll see you on the other side of the world.