Hello, Friends! Remember Plan A? It looked like this:
Move to France for one year. February 1st 2011 to February 1st 2012.
Then, last January I announced an adjusted plan. Let’s call it Plan B:
Stay a few more months — through the end of the school year. February 1st 2011 to July 1st 2012.
And today, here’s another update, another adjustment. Plan C:
Stay another school year. Or 2 1/2 years total! February 1st 2011 to July 1st 2013.
Then we’re really, truly moving back. For reals. How do I know? The lovely family we’re renting La Cressonnière from will be moving back in.
We feel good about Plan C. In fact, we’re super excited to get another year here! It gives our kids a chance to get even more comfortable with French. And gives us more time to find our next home.
The kids are excited too! But it’s been over a year since they’ve been to America and they’re craving a visit with friends and family. So we’re planning a long trip to the U.S. this summer. We’ll be spending the month of July with the Blairs and the Stanleys in Utah and Colorado. Then we’ll come back here for another year.
Tell me: Are you surprised? Or did you suspect an extension all along? : ) Would you stay if you were us?
P.S. — The countryside is covered with yellow fields right now — I snapped the photo above yesterday evening. I was told the plant is moutarde (mustard), but not the sort of mustard we eat. It’s grown for farm animals, and because it improves the soil. So pretty!
Not surprised – I would stay too. So wonderful!
I LOVE plan C! Especially the month of July, 2012!
So excited for everyone!
hugs!
Sounds like a wonderful gift to be able to extend your stay! I would do it too!
How wonderful that you are able to stay another year!
Yes, totally! It looks amazing, I wish I were there right now!!!
so beautiful! So glad you will get to stay. It will still be such a short time in the grand scheme of things. My husband is in the process of choosing a post-doc position to begin this fall and one of the options is in Caen. I would really love to do it, I just swoon over my memories of when I was in France several years ago.
Woohoo! So excited for you and your family! Way to embrace such a wonderful opportunity!
Not surprised, totally jealous!!! : )
YAY!!!! YAY for you all! So happy to hear that you have decided to extend your stay. I will continue to look forward to your newest adventures and daily life in France
I want to go to France!!!! If I believed in second lives, I’d come back as a Blair! ;)
Can’t say I would have called it, but I think it’s a great idea! This seems like it’s been such a great opportunity for your whole family, it only makes sense to squeeze everything out of it that you can. Felicitations!
not surprised at all! i think its great you guys are staying longer in france. i am a big supporter of living outside the u.s. and letting my children gain a world perspective on things. we are moving to indonesia for a year with our 3 and 2 year old, and this is just the beginning!
happy to see another family out there making it happen!
Oh so fun! Glad you’re staying, what a great experience for your family. Also, since Jordan moved back to SF, I think I’ll be going through Eiffel Tower photo withdrawals – please make some trips to Paris and keep those coming, okay? :)
Just in case you have not seen this, our friend, the inimitable Eloisa James – romance novelist extraordinaire, has come out with a sweet book detailing her sabbatical year in Paris – seems like you might enjoy this!
Paris in Love, Eloisa James
http://www.parisinlovebook.com/
Congrats on staying another year – I’m jealous!
Signed,
another Gabrielle, love your blog!
What wonderful news! I’m not surprised, and I’m totally happy for you. :) Enjoy!
I love your plan. It’s been fun following your family’s adventures!
I have talked with my daughter and son (9 & 5) about your family so many times. I have used you as an example of kids on a grand adventure and how one might “train” for such an adventure (like trying new foods etc.). They finally asked to see a picture of your family. My little son exclaimed “Why haven’t we had a playmate yet?” “Can you call their mom?” Oh, how I wish! Have fun continuing your grand adventure Miss Gabrielle!
That was “playdate”. Autocorrect…….
We moved to Australia planning to stay two years and then reevaluate. It has now been four years, we own a house and the children are in school and we have a dog. The dog is the biggest indication of our intentions. :)
haha kind of saw it coming when you guys announced plan B, but how wonderful that you’re able to do this. Your kids will have a firm grounding in the French language and culture by the time you leave, not to mention memories for a lifetime (the oldest four at least)!
I see more happy travels around Europe in your future :)
xx lotte
Not surprised (that’s not said in a “know it all”-y way!). I think it’s a brilliant decision – this overseas gig comes only once. Or may come only once and you might as well enjoy it and milk it for all it’s worth. Life’s short and wishing the overseas transfer/trip away too quickly would be a mistake.
There’ll be time enough for returning to the US. Hooray!
It’s wonderful that you’re able to stay in France! Like most have said :)
I would like to ask, if I may, how you managed the visa extension?! I would love to move to Europe eventually with my family, but I find myself really intimidated by the visa process. You explained that process last year as you were going, but did you do anything specifically to extend? Any tips or tricks? Or is it a lucky gift the country of France has given you? I hope you will tell us!
Yay for the Blairs and yay for us!
Thank you for sharing your amazing journey with your readers.
I can only dream of living in Paris with my husband and children – well maybe just my children. :)
Oh hooray! I’m so glad you like it so much that you want to stay even longer! More “Design Mom in France” posts! Hooray! We’re hoping to move to France soon, so all of this is very helpful!
i would stay. for sure.
Formidable!!!
Yes, I would have stayed as long as possible. So beautiful! Good plan!
How lovely that you get to enjoy another glorious year +! Your journey is a template for me when I can convince the hubby that we NEED to live abroad short-term. Congratulations to the Blair Family ;)
Not surprised at all…..you are so adventurous! And what an adventure this has been, it totally makes sense to make the most of it! (And secretly I’m thrilled for purely selfish reasons. I have loved reading your exploits!)
CONGRATULATIONS!
About the yellow fields – do they stink to you? We grow that here to (canola) and I’m surprised you’re that far ahead of us in the growing season. We just planted ours! We always think the fields are a strange mix of a sweet blossom smell, but also a funny stink. And there are bugs that get into them that will eat lots of other stuff too. So it’s good for the fields, but we always like it when it’s not the field next to the house!
It’s really an intense yellow bloom though – almost like the field is glowing.
I’m with you Alea!! I always thought they smelled like pee. I am a bit weird though…lol
Of course not surprised, France is wonderful! Your kids will reap the benefits of this experience for the rest of their lives. My husband and I spent two years in Germany with our two young girls. We had an amazing time. We just moved back to Canada this past Feb. it’s wonderful to be home and we love our house, but I do miss the everyday adventure of living overseas. I was just thinking on my run yesterday that I wish I’d known about this blog when I lived there…perhaps we could have met for coffee and pain au chocolat! Wishing you all the best, thanks for this wonderful blog.
M
Congrats! I am not surprised by the news and actually relieved. I can’t imagine what it must be like for you and your kids to finally feel like they are getting the knack of the french thing and then have to come home. Best wishes!
I love when foreign adventures are extended. Though I’ve never been to France and though I don’t know your Family (despite following you daily:)) it makes me happy to hear that you are staying.
not surprised! you seem to all blossom so beautifully in france! the yellow flowers are not rapeseed? we’ve got bright yellow rapeseed fields all around us here south of paris.
Last year my friend go to spain and he told me that lot of fields are also yellow in Spain
That photo is amazing, Gabrielle! And yes, it were my family and we could stay in France another school year we DEFINITELY would! How many times do you get a chance like that? :)
xo
cortnie
I would stay forever if I were you! I grew up moving around a lot and have always hoped that my kids will be able to live abroad at some point — anywhere, for any length of time. Coming from an immigrant family, I’ve always felt it important for people to be immersed in another culture, and to have that opportunity as a child is definitely priceless. I really admire what you’re doing! I also just got back from a short trip to France (where I previously studied for a year) and miss it more than ever. The French just seem to know how to fully live, don’t they? :) So glad you are able to extend your stay (and also glad that this means more blogposts from France for us to read :).
I’m so glad you are staying. You are doing the right thing, especially for your beautiful children.
In fact, I think you should try to stay even longer. Find another place to rent or perhaps buy… Are those other houses you looked at on House Hunters International still available?
Anyway, a big YAY! Good for you. And continued fun for me to enjoy your life vicariously.
Hi Gabrielle,
I’ve been offline for a while missed this post. My hats off to you. We went over for 2months last year – wanted to come say hello but we were only in Bayeux for four days so ran out of time. Now we have been back in Sydney for almost five months and just can’t shake it we are trying to figure out how we can do a 2 year stay – my kids are a little older than yours I think (15,12,12,5,1) , well one of them has only 2 years left and is finished and one needs a school with a hearing unit, so its really only the schooling thats scaring me – for my husband its having a house to come back to. aaahhh… so many questions ???? WHere to live? how to pick a school ?
Thanks for your courage