We’ve landed! We’ve now been back in the US for ten days, but those ten days have been chock-full with visiting family and driving all our earthly possessions from Maine to Missouri. Most of our things have been boxed up in a storage unit for the past year, and it was overwhelming to see it—I can’t remember what’s in any of the boxes and I’m tempted to donate everything without opening it.

It’s really, really weird to be back in the US. Sometimes it seems like last year was a dream and I imagined the whole thing. My life of French classes, the Seine, and boulangeries seems impossibly far away. Will we be able to hold onto the things we loved most about Paris – and about ourselves in Paris – or will all that disappear into the behemoth that is America?

Je ne sais pas. 

But we’re trying. So far we’ve mostly abstained from bread and cheese because they’re terrible here compared to France, but we baked our own croissants and we walk everywhere and every now and then we still turn to each other and say something in French.

Like, où sommes-nous?? Where are we??

Or, Paris, tu me manques. Paris, I miss you.

Or just, on y va. Let’s go.

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Some photos from our successful croissant-baking experiment below. A taste of “home.” ❤