It’s funny for us to realize that returning to our Nantes house after two weeks away feels like coming home. In fact, it is EXACTLY like coming home. But it’s odd, considering our real home is in Seattle. Yet here we are feeling so much at home in Nantes, both in the city and in our house.
For instance, it felt great to sleep in own our beds last night. Everyone knows how comfortable this is, returning to one’s own bed, what with everything about it being so familiar. It’s one of the great things about vacations, and on both sides of them. On vacation you get the wonderful newness and change of pace. And then back home you get the comfort of familiarity. Similarly, Melinda and I hopped on the tram this morning to ride into town. I got a little giddy hearing the familiar recorded voice call out the stops. Silly, I know.
What is also interesting when returning home after being away is to see the changes made. Life goes on without you, it turns out. In our case, the facelift of our neighborhood grocery store continues. The big change is the black paint and the gray posts, adding to the elegance of the new entry. We are curious to see what will be attached to those vertical studs pointing to the sky on the left side of the photo.
Hmmm… I wonder what it will be like to go home to Seattle in July. I wonder what it will be like to sleep in our Seattle beds. I wonder what changes will have been made in our absence. But I don’t want to think too much about that. There is too much living yet to do here at home in Nantes!
Andy Smallman 
Ah-Ha! In my ongoing reaction to your daily musings, today’s really hit a responsive chord! I think your writing about everyday events in your life in France often creates a resonance within me, especially because we travel each winter for an extended stay. I can really relate to “home” now being Breckenridge and my bed right now is the one I have been sleeping in here for three months, which btw is really comfortable. It is high so it does not hurt my knees to get up out of it the way it does to get out of our waterbed in Texas!
My reaction to your posts is interesting to me because I often find daily posts made on Facebook to be trivial and uninteresting, but your posts strike me as fresh and insightful which may well have to do with the nature and length of your sojourn – everyday is something new and different to you and thus to me your reader. Of course that is not to diminish the nature of your personality which also is delightfully revealed in your writings. Okay, enough musing and stroking for today, but I think there is a truth in your messages that keeps me reading. Thank you for a bright spot in my days.
“I wonder what changes will have been made in our absence.”
In case you were wondering, they haven’t done anything with the viaduct and still are not sure if they are doing to build a new tunnel.
But there’s been plenty of citizen input.