You get nervous and mix up words and say things like “Merfi” instead of “Merci”

An employee at McDonald’s asks you where your table is so they can bring your food to you and you respond by saying “Merci!” because you didn’t understand what they said until you started to walk away

When someone asks you if you are English you automatically think they are asking if you speak English, and then you have to pause for a second and say you are American

If someone starts speaking English to you you are so surprised you don’t know what to say, or you continue to respond in French

When someone makes you nervous or you feel rushed to speak you completely forget how to say things you know how to say, or you forget your phone number that you know by heart

You accidentally call your husband “my man” instead of “my husband”

You accidentally refer to a restaurant owner’s wife as his husband

You smile and say “oui” when you don’t know what someone is saying to you

At times you just can’t understand someone so you freeze and look at your husband and hope he knows what is going on

You think you are ordering chicken and it turns out to be a really nasty tasting sausage

Your husband tells his mom she’s ordering rice and beef and it turns out to be cow brain

After making a wine tasting reservation, it turns out to be a small wine room in someone’s basement of their home

You get really annoyed when you think you are pronouncing something right, yet the person you’re speaking to has no idea what you’re saying

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We didn’t plan any trips during Ryan’s August vacation because I am very pregnant and not wanting to do much, but we’ve been keeping busy doing a lot of things in and around Clermont Ferrand.

We’ve spent several mornings going to Lac d’Aydat about 20 minutes away.   Makenna loves playing in the water and making sand castles.  A couple times we’ve packed a picnic, and in true French style we picked up a baguette on our way to the lake and made sandwiches on our picnic blanket.  Just before the lake there are donkeys that you can ride, so we took Makenna on one and she had a great time and kept saying “he’s cute!”

Ryan recently got a child seat for his bike and he has taken Makenna on quite a few bike rides.  Sometimes they take a ride to the store and other times they wind up at a park.  It’s been great that Ryan can have this time with her since it’s usually me that gets to do things with her while he’s at work.

One weekend we took a ride to Thiers, about 30 minutes away, because it is known for knife-making.  It’s a fairly small town with a ton of different shops selling knives.  Ryan bought a set for us and then we decided to buy children’s cutlery sets for both Makenna and her little brother on the way.  The shop engraved their names on the knives so they will be a special souvenir from our time in France.

Another weekend we went to Vichy, about 45 minutes away.  Vichy is known for it’s thermal water that has healing properties, so we visited the Hall des Sources, where there are water taps that you can drink from for free.  In the center, there are other taps that you can only access if you have a prescription from your doctor.  There is something different about those taps that have healing properties for different illnesses, and doctors will actually prescribe this water for certain ailments.  We walked around the town and took Makenna to a beautiful park along the river.

The rest of our days have been spent just enjoying having Ryan home and going to the public pool.  And of course preparing for our baby boy that we will meet very soon!

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We are so lucky that our friends Jena and Nicolai from Greenville are also expats in Clermont with us and Makenna loves to play with their daughter Olivia.  We went to Olivia’s first birthday party in Greenville just before Jena and Nicolai moved to France, and this year we celebrated her 3rd birthday with her at an indoor playground called Kizou.  Their friend Benjamin was also there and the 3 of them had a great time!  Makenna had no fear playing in the area for older kids and loved the big slide.

After Kizou, we all went to an American style diner for lunch where the kids’ food was served in cardboard cars and they received bubbles and a balloon.  Jena made cupcakes and goodie bags which of course the kids loved.  Makenna had her first hot dog which was fun to watch as it was big and she ate almost the whole thing.

I’m so thankful for the friendships that not only Ryan and I have formed here, but Makenna as well!

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Ever since we moved here I’ve been wanting to visit Château de Chenonceau in the Loire Valley.  There are many chateaux throughout that area, so we decided to take a 3 day trip and visit several of them.  We stayed in Tours and drove to a few different nearby towns to see the chateaux.

Our first stop was in Amboise where we had lunch and then visited Clos Lucé, which was the home of Leonardo da Vinci before he died.  The home itself wasn’t very impressive compared to other chateaux we’ve seen, but it is well known for it’s grounds where there are machines that he invented on display.  We then spent a little time walking around Tours which turned out to be a bigger city than we expected.

The next day we started at Château de Chenonceau which was really beautiful and unique as it extended over the river.  This was my favorite just because of how unique the outside was.  There was a hedge maze on the grounds which was fun for Makenna to run around.  Then we headed to Château de Valençay which was really interesting too.  It has a really large property, so you can rent golf carts to drive through the different areas.  There was a playground, an area for goats and peacocks, an area in the woods where they would have outdoor parties, and an area where they built caves for storage.  There were some really beautiful rooms and a very impressive wine cave!  Next we stopped at Château de Chambord where we just visited the outside as we heard the inside was really big and there were a lot of stairs to climb (which we didn’t want to do with Makenna or my huge belly).  We saw some impressive photos of the outside but were a little disappointed to see they were doing construction that took away from the beauty.

Before heading home the next day, we went to Château de Villandry which was another favorite of ours as the inside was beautiful and it had amazing gardens outside.  There were several different gardens, all with different themes and purposes.  The landscaping was incredible.  There was also a grass tennis court and a hedge maze.

It was so neat to see the different chateaux and imagine that these were once homes to really wealthy families, and the history behind some of them is really interesting.  There is nothing quite like this in the US!

I haven’t had a pedicure since we moved to France because I heard it isn’t the same spa-like experience like it is in the US.  But having a huge belly makes it impossible to give myself a pedicure, so I decided to make an appointment.

There aren’t really nail salons here like you see in the US, usually it’s done at a hair salon or spa.  The place I went to was a spa where they did facial treatments, massages etc.  I was taken into a room that felt like I was in a doctor’s office, with a table like an examination table at the doctor.  Of course, I was expecting a nice comfy massage chair with a foot bath.  I was told to lay down and the lady sat in front of my feet removing my nail polish, filing my nails and rubbing an exfoliating scrub on my feet.  Then she took out this little portable foot bath that plugs into the wall and has little jets.  She put this at the end of the table and I soaked my feet in there for a little while but it was uncomfortable having to lay with my knees up holding my feet down in the tub.  Then she painted my nails and was very precise so it took probably 45 minutes for her to put the different coats on and then fix a smudge after she put my sandals on.

Overall it was nice to get a pedicure and my nails looked nice, but it was definitely a different experience than in the US…and expensive!