The Timeline Explained

I realized due to my dear sister-in-law's comment, that I have left out some details which aren't evident just from reading the blog posts. 

So I began by posting our pregnancy news, which now I realize I was leaving my readers (i.e. friends and family) to read between the lines a little too much. Prior to the pregnancy, I had been planning to do our France trip in January of 2022 because COVID kept making me have to delay it. Once I learned that I was pregnant and was due to have a baby in February, I thought I'd better not try to have a baby in France. (Although I admit I entertained the idea because I did not want to cancel the trip all together!) It just so happened, providentially, that France finally opened up to tourists and visa applicants in June right around the very same time, so all of a sudden it was in fact feasible to try and go this fall instead. So I turned on a dime and quickly began taking care of business: contacting the school to make sure it was all right for us to come in September; changing the dates of our plane tickets (which I orinally purchased in March of 2020); gathering all the necessary documentation for visas, including updated ID photos, travel insurance, bank statements, so on and so forth. 

The first day of school in France is September 2, so I needed to plan to get there a few weeks in advance so that we can all settle in and get our bearings. Not to mention, find a place to live! We depart August 2 from Charlotte and will arrive in Toulouse on the afternoon of the 3rd. Our return date is December 23. 

We will spend our first week in Céret, visiting a friend, and then we will go to Limoges where I have a hotel reserved and hope to finally find more permanent lodging when I'm on the ground there. 

I am renting/leasing a car for the duration of our stay and that is how we will get around, although I am really hoping to find lodging that is within walking distance of the school so that I don't have to drive every day. (ahem, stick shift, by the way!😝)

I chose Limoges because it is the Sister City of Charlotte. I have no other connections there. That was my segue when asking schools if they would let my children attend school. 

Any other questions? Let me know in the comments!