Provence!

Hi everyone. Tyler here! Sorry I haven't posted for a while....  To make up for it, this post will be huge!!

Yesterday we took the bullet train (180 mph!) from Paris to Provence, where we were met by our family friends Jennifer and James Butler. Jennifer

 and James own an amazing Mas (French term for country estate) in the town of Eygalier! This was Courtney and my first time here.. The house is indescribable..  Truly something you have to really see and study to understand. No photos could ever do it justice. 

The study was built by monks in 1150  (yes.. over 850 years ago), and the rest of the house was finished in the 17th and 18th century. There is a church on the property which is one of the oldest in France, and also dated to the 12th century.

This is the house 

Before we arrived at the house (Jennifer picked Courtney, my mom and myself up at the train station) we stopped at the sanitarium where Van Gough was hospitalized after he cut his ear off.....

Once released from the sanitarium, we stopped in the town of Remy at an amazing exhibition of Van Gough art. This wasnt just ANY exhibit however... This exhibit was in an old limestone quarry, that has been dug out, and had 2000 projectors installed. These projectors projected Van Gough art on the 30+ foot limestone walls of the quarry. The images changed every few seconds.  Again, pictures cant do it justice! (Sorry about the blur of the photos. there was no flash allowed, and it was really dark)

After the exhibit we arrived at the house. The first impression you get when pulling into the driveway is "This isn't real." The house is amazing. It's like you cant believe you have really arrived, and get to stay there for 3 nights. Honestly, I could spend a whole day just exploring the house and the grounds  (church included)

That night, Jennifer and James prepared an amazing dinner for us. An Omelet and Salad, followed by a cheese plate (James is known locally for his amazing taste in cheeses) and a trio of local ice cream flavors!

After a few bottles of vin we all went to bed. Today we awoke to another wonderful feast prepared by James. fresh pastry and bread with Jam, coffee, OJ and local apple juice, and fresh figs.

We were all surprised that we could even stand up after such a dinner and breakfast, but after we discovered that our legs were still working, we all headed down to the Eygalier farmers market. And WHAT a market......

Farmers Market Frenchie - "Asterix" - - - - 

Before leaving the market the 5 of us stopped for some wine and a few  (read:18) fresh oysters, then headed back to the house for a lunch of pork ribs with baked potatoes, salad, cheese, and a delicious tart.

After a few hours of well needed digestion, Jennifer, Courtney, my mom and I all piled in the car to drive down to the antique store laden town of Isle. Sur la Sorgue. I only got a few photos there, because my battery started to die and we still have another day and a half here!

As I am typing, James is in the kitchen  (Ill post interior pics of the house later.. this is a new definition of KITCHEN...) cooking us all a curry chicken dish!

We are having a fantastic time, and as you can tell, are being well fed.  Court and I are still a bit jetlagged.. It takes so long to get over.. I feel like we have already done so much, and we have really only been here 3 days!

Breaking the silence

Hello, 

Where do I begin? Its been so long and I apologize for the radio silence.

Well... without getting into it, the France job fell through. Our lives have completely changed and it all happened within a week. We moved out of our house, subleased a tiny apartment in Mill Valley, and booked 2 tickets to Paris leaving Oct. 6th and returning to SF sometime in December.  Oh and our gorgeous going away party that friends threw instantly turned into our Bon Voyage. (They are amazing!)

We are taking the Europe trip that you are supposed to take after college except we are doing it when we are 30, well for the record I am 29.  We have lots of cities on our list of travels and haven't quite ironed out in which order we plan to visit those places but we will keep you posted, right here!

Ty was laid off at ILM (again!) and since I had quit my job, put all of our stuff in storage, we figured, what the hell???

I could tell you that we are totally excited and we are, trust me. But part of me at least feels very irresponsible, irrational and maybe a bit crazy for doing this. This is definitely not something I have done before and neither has Tyler. But, if we think about it, the part that appealed the most to us about moving to Provence was having the ability to live in Europe and do little side trips to see a lot of the places you read about and hear about but don't imagine going until the time is right, or you have enough money or you can get the time off work. 

1 out of 3 isn't bad.  We are going to see all of the places we planned to see over our stint in Provence and a few more. We know, at least for now, when we are coming back, and we know for sure when we leave.  That is a very good thing.

Where we will work and live when we return is still a mystery.  Worried? Yes. Do we think that sipping un cafe and nibbling on a pain o chocolat at Cafe duex Maggots will cure that? Absolutely. At least temporarily.  Denial is totally under-rated.

We love living in Marin and hope that we will be able to come back and find jobs that we enjoy and will enable us to get our house back.  That is the next challenge. 

For now, its how many shoes to I take to Paris, realistically? And how to I pack for a climate that is bound to change while we are there? 

Mostly, tomorrow, do I have time for a run and yoga or just one of those and how about meeting up with some friends for a walk and what will I make for dinner? 

These are simple things that we seriously have taken for granted and not even realized how lucky we are to be able to do these things and live where we do. 

I have a feeling going to see Europe will only deepen those thoughts and we can't wait to share with you our new journey. Its going to be different than we originally planned but no doubt amazing and a once in a lifetime trip that we are fortunate enough to take.  

Where I don't always feel lucky that the job didn't work out as I was so looking forward to it, I feel like someone upstairs is smiling down on us telling themselves that we will thank them later.  And that, I can live with.

 

  

Things Tyler will Miss - Part 1

The Popeyes at Divisadero and Hayes

Popeyes is far and away my favorite of the fast food chains.
If you tell anyone you like Popeyes and they say "gross," that is your clue that they have never really eaten there. This place is gold.

Today, my friend Tim and I decided to go to Popeyes for one "last time"in what we are sure will be several years. According to the Popeyes.com store locater, there are no Popeyes in France. This is a shame. Maybe if they did have them in France, the French might just like us Americans a little more!

Today I got the standard: The #2 with Fries.
I am so hurting right now.. Just like every time I go to Popeyes.
Is it worth it?
Hell yes.

Some rules are meant to be broken

Great news, I am finished with jury duty as of today :) I cannot tell you how happy I am to be done with that!!  Remember when I said a little bit of bad is a good thing? Well, I did something bad and got excused from the trial which equals me looking like this: 

:)

Basically, I talked to a friend about the trial, no details but I told her how long it was for and that I was "disgusted" by it.  Honestly, I didn't know that I wasn't supposed to even give away that much.  Turns out she knew the lawyer on the trial and next thing you know, I was excused. SCORE!

All that talk of being a good citizen and stuff turned out to be b.s. It was a huge waste of time and I have other things that I need to be doing than waiting around to be called into jury duty. I have never spent so much time waiting around on someone else's clock who has absolutely no regard for your time what so ever.  Sitting in there writing huge lists of things that I needed to do was making me insane so thank god I got kicked out of that joint.  No harm, no foul and back to reality. 

We started moving this past weekend and got our storage unit and took a big car load up on Sunday morning so I think we have a good head start and this move should be pretty smooth from the packing standpoint. I haven't moved very many times in my life, I think I can count the number of times on one hand, but for Ty, this is his 19th move. He is a pro!  It really is amazing to witness someone who is so efficient at this process.  Labeling boxes and not filling them to the point where you can't even lift them.  Making an inventory sheet, seriously he is good at this stuff.  In my experience with moving, I like to pretend I am not moving until the last minute then throw everything in boxes with no order what so ever and cram it all into some form of a truck borrowed from a friend. This will be different.   I am an adult now, I have wrinkles and get hangovers that last 2 days.  That means I have to start acting like one. 

We all know that moving is a drag.  I still think its great that A. We are going to one of the most beautiful places in the world and B. We have a great place to come back to in what I think is one of the most desirable places to live.  It is definitely making this moving process a whole lot easier knowing that. The physicality of it totally blows though and that is exactly why they have movers who we will be taking full advantage of.  Thanks to my new company who will be picking up the tab.  MERCI!

Now I need to start learning French.  Like tonight. Preferably in a week. I am going to start sleeping with a French dictionary under my pillow. I heard its the quickest way to learn.

 

Halloween could be back on

Well, I finally heard from the relocation company telling me that my application was submitted at the end of the July so my visa should be done at the end of October, anything earlier will be a pleasant surprise. 

Yeah. Thanks. 

Right after we semi-come up with a plan of where to live in September, I find out today that we now have to find somewhere to live for October. October was in my worst case scenario - end of October I hadn't yet considered. 

I am feeling very torn at the moment and wondering if this is seriously worth it. I feel like we are going to have to go in the hole to make this happen and that is the last thing I wanted to do. 

We are going to go for a run and hopefully shake this feeling. 

Duty Calls

Good news, I have heard from the French!  Nothing really new to report but I found out what the procedure will be once I get my work visa. Well, first I will receive an invitation from the French Consulate to come pick up my work visa once it is ready, I will have to call and make an apt.  I still don't know if I will be picking it up in LA or SF, that is in the air. Then, once I pick up my visa, I will contact the company I am going to work for and they will book our tickets within 1 week to be in France.  Then, once I arrive in France, I have to make an apt. for my physical, once I pass that I will be able to start work and they will be able to help us find an apartment.  It could take a month to get an apt. as they are very busy.  Maybe I will get to work in January '09, thrilling.  In the meantime, we will be put up in a long-stay hotel with a rental car until we get settled in France.  

So we have a ways out, but it was good to find out realistically what will happen once I pick up my work visa.  I like to be prepared. 

We have rented out our condo for Sept. 1st so are currently debating where we are going to live for September as we wait for the visa.  We have few options but it is between Nor. Cal and So. Cal.  I am for staying in where ever has the best weather, but September in Nor Cal is pretty hard to beat, even in So Cal.  I have mentally prepared to be out of Marin on September so I think that moving even 8 hours away might be easier than sticking around here and waiting. At least if we move somewhere, it will feel like this is happening.  One thing Ty and I are not good at is waiting and being patient.  It is a challenge for sure.

In the meantime, I have had the absolute pleasure of being called into Jury Duty.  Originally it made sense for me to quit my job when I did, thinking we would be leaving for France on Sept. 1st. I thought I would have August to pack and tie up our loose ends, learn French and then we would leave. 

Then... a lovely little piece of mail shows up in my inbox that completely messed with our pretty little plan. Now I am on a 3 week case for jury duty. We have Wednesdays off which has just become my unofficial moving day.  Thank you god, wherever you are. 

So much for getting that great tan and spending time with friends and family before we leave.  I mean packing.. and learning French.

Its funny how life works and how our cards are dealt.  It seems to be no coincidence that I happened to have this month off and I get put on a 3 week trial.

Hey, I did need a part time job. Ask and you shall receive... Not exactly what I was thinking but I guess I will take it.  At a whopping $15 a day, I just don't even know what I will do with myself. You can't even buy a decent bottle of wine for that.  Not even a tank of gas.  

At least I am doing my civic duty. This is my 2nd time around. Next time, I will be busting out an excuse, I don't care. I really don't know why I wasn't more ballsy with the excuses. You should have heard the things people were coming up with to get out of this.  Its definitely a dance to get out of jury duty, you have to be prepared with back story and the regular financial hardship excuse needs to be followed up with written letter depicting why. They are not letting people off that easy anymore which is good.  A small part of me feels good for doing my duty, especially before we leave the country. It feels very American to be part of the justice system which is so privy to our country alone. Timing absolutely sucks, lets be honest, but the timing for Jury Duty is NEVER good.  I am sucking it up and trying to make the best of it, if sucking it up means complaining about it via blog. Maybe I will learn something. It sure as hell has not been like the episodes of Boston Legal that make court look sexy, funny and exciting. Uh.. ya I wish.  Just being in a courtroom and entering security like at the airport everyday is making me feel like a criminal, hardly sexy at all. We feel like we are in some kind of jail, having to break when they tell us, taking lunch at an exact time, its not a great feeling that is for sure. Also walking by shady people there is making me paranoid.   All wonderful walks of life fill this establishment, waiting for their time to enter the courtroom.  It definitely makes me really never want to do anything bad. Well not bad enough to take me back to that place. A little bad sometimes can be a good thing.

The French

No New News so.....