They have departed .....

Time flies....

Mom and Dad's deux semaines visit ended yesterday and they left for the airport in Paris around 6 AM to catch their short six hour flight to go back home.  Today Middle Garcon is home from school (c'est Mercredi) and while Petite Fille naps I am trying to get my head together so I can move on to the next thing...the sooner I do, the better I will feel as the clock begins again for their next visit, possibly in six more months--but we of course hope for less...like January would be great -- when Petite Fille turns one and Oldest Garcon becomes a teen--at long last!

I didn't do well when they left from their previous visit in April--you can see in this post-after their visit.  I took a head-long emotional crash... I seriously did cry for days (dainty, grown-up girl, tears.....okay--puffy-eyed ugly sob-fests....).  My parents visits are always too short and the distance in between too long.  Even though we see them almost as frequently as we did when we lived on the West Coast and Pacific NW, the distance between the East Coast and another country seems like more.  We have however started to Skype--that makes it better--at least they can see first person, Petite Fille's milestones (currently she slither/crawls, claps, 'dances' says 'Mama' or 'Mum-Mum' and a repertoire of other entertaining gestures....).

There are reminders of their visits all around after they go; they bring suitcases full of cher things that we love from 'home'...... piles of Old Navy clothes for the kids, books (in English!) cooking things for me and CoverGirl make-up that I can't get here.....they always arrive with an extra suitcase of goodies.

This time their visit was filled with French-Family activities (the wedding of course, lunches and visits...) I took them for a long walk on the beach--to show them my jogging-route, it was a treat for me because I wasn't jogging but instead hauling my camera along and taking time to soak in the Normandy beach gorgeousness and seeing through their eyes one of my daily experiences--that is one of the best part about having them visit...sharing our life...even the mundane and normal stuff like going to the market, taking an evening walk, visiting the 'Chateau' to get fresh picked veggies....things we do on a day to day or weekly basis--but to share it with people we love makes it golden.

Their departure left me with a less 'kick-in-the-gut' sensation than the prior one, thankfully.  As my French progresses and we create more and more routines and rituals in our French-life, that magical (and sometimes elusive) sense of home develops too.  I want to share it with friends and family more than I want to escape it and go back 'home' to the old familiar life in the US.  That's big.

Sigh.......later on today I will call them to make sure they got home safely.  They leave France and arrive in Boston at about the same time because of the time difference.  I have already moved the 'tween back into his room and cleaned up 'Camp Garcon', the 'bunk' room for the two boys while Grandma and Grandpa are here.  I am back to blogging (obviously) and trying to fill up our calendar with some fun things for the weekend so we re-group as a little family again....

C'est une bonne visite, naturellement.  We miss you already.