Arrivés.

Yesterday is a bit of a blur. I mean Sunday and yesterday—blurred together, all into one.

None of us slept much on the plane. I watched Interstellar on and off, interspersed with crossword puzzles. Arrival and passport control at Nice-Côte d’Azur went smoothly, all our luggage came too. Ten minutes’ confusion about how to buy tickets for the tram to the train station, no problem buying train tickets to Menton, no problem walking to and letting ourselves into the AirBnb.

A marriage note!

I’ll get used to it, I always do, but as soon as the plane lands outside the English-speaking world (cue dolly zoom) a certain set of roles suddenly reverses. Normally, when we are traveling with the kids, by unspoken agreement and long habit, I manage children and Mark deals with car rental counters, ticket-buying, lost luggage offices, hotel maintenance complaints, etc. Generally, having conversations with the hostile bureaucracy of commerce.

But we are in France, and I speak French well enough, and now all of that is my job! And I know it is my job but every single time when I first hear him say “Stand over here and wait with me, your mom’s going to go buy the train tickets” I am suddenly gobsmacked.

I mean, I can buy the tickets, it’s not a problem, but the switch takes time to reset in my brain.

+ + +

We rested, went out to get pastries, came back, I went grocery shopping for milk and cereal and jambon serrano and cheese and baguette and wine and fruit and yogurt. We rested, then hauled the kids up and outside to catch afternoon sun, bribing them with ice cream. I distributed medication doses carefully at predetermined times in accordance with a spreadsheet I had made before leaving. We went back, ate the dinner, drank the wine, went out for more ice cream. Back again, melatonin for all, and finally the long sleep.

We assigned Leo to order ice cream with his one year of high school French. I stayed outside and waited on a bench so I wouldn’t be tempted to jump in and rescue him. He did fine. He’s pleasantly surprised at how well he can understand things.

OK, my chausson de pommes and double espresso are gone now. I need to go buy a month’s worth of shampoo and shaving cream. Catch you later.