Good-bye to this

As every year, it takes me a little time to settle in to life in Aveyron after a summer in the Pacific Northwest.

Olympia, in all its calm yet funky glory, had never looked more charming to me than it did this summer. Was it the resolutely warm weather, or just the mood I was in?

Perhaps knowing that my daughter had spent a whole school year there made me look at my home town with a fresh eye. I wrote this post about leaving her behind there exactly one year ago, and it does seem like all year long, I had Olympia on my mind.

Now it's la rentrée, and time for new experiences here in Aveyron. My youngest will start a new, French high school; my eldest will start la faculté here in Rodez. My husband and I both have plenty of work lined up, and hope to do a little better on the social side than last year.

Good-bye for now, Olympia.

Wordless Wednesday 67

I'm home, she's home, we're all home

At some point, in the wee hours and far too shortly before we left Olympia, my youngest daughter's accumulated "stuff" was looking like this.

It was just as well I was asleep.

But we made it home, our full allowance of 8 suitcases in tow:

Departure from my parents' garage

28 hours later, this accumulation of sweatpants, T-shirts and other accoutrements of American teenage life was neatly packed in our utility trailer that had been stored in Toulouse:

And, most importantly, she's home: