Made it here in one piece!

I'm hoping this blog will be a great way to keep in touch with our friends and family in the U.S. and help me keep up with pictures so that we can reminisce later.  Thanks for visiting :)

We had a wonderful Christmas in Raleigh followed by some teary goodbyes.  Definitely the toughest part of the move so far.

We traveled last Sunday and it was a long one.  Wow.  We flew Raleigh-Atlanta, Atlanta-Paris (with a long layover in Paris).  And finally Paris-Clermont Ferrand.  The flight to France was great!  The kids ate their dinner and all three fell asleep pretty quickly.

Rick and Megan Williams who I've just met and love already met us at the airport with carts ready to help us lug our bajillion bags to the cars and save Kennedy from the revolving doors while Ethan figured out the rental car situation.  

I wish I had video footage of the ride from the airport to Michelin.  

I have never driven a stick shift and Ethan has only a few times, several years ago.  I will spare you the details, but just say that had Rick and Megan not been following us, we may not be here a week later still laughing about it.  The kids were screaming the whole way and saying really encouraging things like, "Daddy, why are all these people honking at you?" And "whoa...that guy looks angry."

Finally we got settled in to our temporary apartment and everybody slept for a few hours.  After a little running around of course :)

We've been here about a week and each day we're feeling more and more at home.  The Williams' have been so good to us--showing us around town, telling me all about the school, best places to shop, etc.  Seriously--what a blessing to have such a sweet family watching out for us!