We are finding ourselves saying things like, “When we get back home we…” and “Remember when we first got to France and…”

It’s both exciting and sad, if that makes sense. On one hand we are looking forward to be back in our Seattle home and re-engaging in all the things we love about living in Seattle. And on the other hand our lives in Nantes have been so wonderful that part of us doesn’t ever want to leave. For instance, the store over Melinda’s and my shoulders in today’s photo is something I will miss. It’s a sporting goods store called Decathlon (French website / English website). To my knowledge, there is nothing like it in the U.S. I’ve purchased very inexpensive clothes that I really like, food products (I’m a nut for energy bars and powders), my pedometer, and a stopwatch from Decathlon. I will miss it.

More important than the stores, though, are the people. Melinda was touched yesterday when Christine mentioned how much she is going to miss her, a sentiment Melinda had recently shared with me about Christine. We had a similar conversation with Frédérique on Sunday.

We need to keep in mind that we still have 3 WHOLE MONTHS left to enjoy France (well, France and a week in Italy that’s coming up).

Wow. What an experience this is proving to be. Everything we had hoped and more.