We've been back just over 2 weeks now, and it's starting to feel "normal". Hannah still says "bonjour" to strangers as they pass in the street, and "merci" when she gets her babycino (she's very happy with the non-UHT milk!); I occasionally protest at the ridiculous over-use of indicators on the road; but basically we're back to being Australianised.
We've obviously talked a lot about our trip, and been reflecting quite a bit ourselves. The bottom line is that the trip was fantastic; better than that it was perfect. Which obviously is being said through the lens of rose coloured glasses, and with memory loss kicking in for the jet lag, the screaming kids in the back of the car, the endless weeks of gastro/flu/conjunctivitis, and the occasional language barrier. But it certainly exceeded all our expectations: Em learnt (and tasted!) more about French wine than we imagined was possible in 3 months; I thoroughly enjoyed my time with girls and have adored spending such quality (and quantity!) time with them, and as a bonus probably cleared my head of some of fluff that I'm sure has accumulated over the last 10 years at work; and the girls are both alive and mostly well after being looked after by Dad.
But for me one of the most remarkable things about it was how sad we were to leave: both the place (which I think I expected) but more surprisingly also the people.
One our final Sunday we helped Cyrille and Severine move house; we were grateful recipients of their lovely, generous nature, and from the crowd of people who turned up to help, it was obvious all their friends were only too happy to repay their generosity. It's very handy when needing to move fridges etc that a lot of your friends happen to play rugby. But the point is at the end of the day (after all 3 fridges had been moved), it was sad to say goodbye. Normally after I've moved someone's fridge, I'm pretty happy to say farewell, but this time I was genuinely sad.
3 months probably isn't long enough to form life-long friendships, but in that time we got to know some very lovely, funny, intelligent people. And most of them went out of their way to not only help us, but to include us in their lives, and make sure that our experience of France was as good as it could possibly be. And the sadness at the end was probably due partly to the fact we were saying goodbye, but also because I felt our language barrier had prevented us forming better friendships. I sincerely hope that we will again meet with many of our French friends, because there's no doubt they've been a part of a great experience for our family.
It was weird how with 2 weeks to go, we started to mentally pack up and come home. Most people wouldn't holiday in Lyon for 2 weeks, but somehow it felt like we were nearing the end. We tried to counter the intuition by cramming in lots of activities. We had two lots of visitors: Becca and Mike for a long weekend from London, and Kristy came to visit us from her current home in the French Alps. And visitors of course necessitated meals out (lunch in Ampuis and back to Le Nord in Lyon for lunch), more great wines (see tasting notes below), another wander around Lyon (Em finally saw the steam come out the nose of the horse in the famous statue at Place Terreaux!!!) and of course a few more delicacies from the local patisserie! While Becca and Mike were staying, we also had Yann, Cyrille and Severine for dinner. A great night (the latest we’d been up for a while!) with terrific food, obviously great wine, and wonderful company and conversation (often about the great wine!). And luckily there was a wine expo in Lyon the last weekend: 500 producers under 1 roof, just in case we’d missed any while we were there (www.vingneron-independant.com).
But we're back. Survived (relatively easily) the flight, the drive home (much easier when you know where you're going!) and (relatively painfully) the week or so of jetlag that followed. We've enjoyed catching up with all our terrific Aussie friends and family, and we've both coped with getting back to our Australian jobs! Life isn't quite back to normal (still boxes to unpack!) but we're almost back to our "pre-France" lives, although probably living them with a slightly different perspective. Em bought a baguette from Bakers Delight the other day, and as soon as Abby and Hannah saw it they went crazy, demanding a bit be broken off for them. One bite, and it was put back down though - just isn't the same (or as good!) as the French version.
2006 Mersault Premier Cru, Domaine Jean-Marie Bouzereau
Intense lifted aromas of white peach with complex aromas of butter, vanilla, diacetyl. Palate is fruity, clean and fresh with oak and fruit playing equal and balanced roles. Intense, balanced and amazing length. 18.5/20
And one last album of photos (for now):
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