We’ve arrived. Okay, we’ve been here since October. (And I’ve already shared four tips on moving to France). We lived in a hotel and ate out for every meal, negotiating with our landlord and taking the bus and tram to school and work. It has been fairly easy to get settled in, but we have only been in our apartment for just over a month.
The first few months here have been fun, frustrating, educational, but overall a good time. The food is amazing – I can eat bread here! For a non-gluten eating girl in the United States, moving to France was scary. I wasn’t sure what I would eat because of course all anyone talks about is cheese, wine, and bread. Well no gluten means no bread, and I really don’t drink all that often. I thought maybe something would be different here, maybe the wheat is different, bathed in red wine at night or white wine in the summer, maybe the French are so interested in their long lunches someone forgot to overprocess something. And I reluctantly tried a croissant.
And I had no pain (I do not have celiac disease, I don’t have anything that’s been diagnosed, but once I quit eating anything w/ gluten in it, the odd body aches I had been experiencing for years have disappeared, I’ve read a lot and came up with a non-celiac gluten intolerance). So I tried another croissant. And a sandwich. And a cookie. And I realized that I can eat anything here. This made me very happy because if you can’t eat bread in France, it is hard to eat. I worry for when my Mom comes to visit (she has the same issues, I am watching my daughter to see if this is inherited) but have to wait and see what happens. I will be prepared with salads and soups though.
We don’t live in Paris, we are way out at the end of the world in a small city/town about five hours by train from Paris. We technically have a US address, so I can still order from Amazon but our post office is still a couple of hours away. We did not bring our car (more on that) so we have been getting around by tram or walking, which means we haven’t left the city just yet. It’s confusing for some people because we’ve been here and haven’t gone anywhere for vacation or sightseeing. They forget we just got into our apartment, we haven’t settled in, and we have time. So far, so good. Bread, wine, cheese, tramway, tutor for the kids to help with the French language, very nice Mom’s at the school the boys attend, and good weather.
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