A Glimpse of Croissy-sur-Seine

Two days after moving in, we took a walk to explore our new town.  I think we're going to like it here!

Some buildings on our Main Street.

A view of the Seine.

St. Leonard's Church, the local parish, built in 1882.

How apropos that my Leonard lives here!

The original St. Leonard's Church built in 1211 and served the town until the new St. Leonard's was built. 

Chateau Chanorier, now a museum and park.  It's also home to the annual Carrot Festival of Croissy!

Just a nice tree-lined street.  We love the "square" trees of France!

First Day at the POECD

Leonard at his first day of work! Canada has 3 missions in Paris- the embassy, the permanent mission to UNESCO, and the permanent delegation to the OECD (the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development). Len is at the OECD. This is his dream posting and I'm so excited for him!

 

First day of the 2024-2025 School year

We did it! We got the kids off to their first day of school. This is the least prepared we've ever been, but sometimes you've just got to sink or swim.

Gavin- Senior!
Wants to be a fantasy author
and/or HVAC tech.

Teague- Sophomore
Wants to be an author
or a baker.

Hiram- 7th grade
Wants to be a game designer.

Ali- 5th Grade
Wants to be a gymnast in the Olympics when she grows up.

Macy- Bonus Kindergarten
Wants to be a dancer when she grows up.

These kids are troopers! I think they're glad to be settled again. Still wishing Kaleb and Noé could have stayed 17 forever.

Go Rebels!

La Famille Cannon

The day before school started we moved into our new home.  That night we went out to dinner with the Cannon family.  Their son, Alexander, finished his mission serving in Lyon.  They went to France to pick him up and do some vacationing.  It was their only night in Paris before returning to the USA the next day, so we tucked our kids into bed, grabbed the train, and met them to eat.

Leonard met Lincoln and Dorotheé on his mission (you can see them in the post Thirty Years Later!).  I met them shortly afterwards.  We were at their wedding in 1996 and they were at ours in 1997.  We also met Spencer the day he was born.

It's so cool that Alexander also served his mission in France!

Spencer served his mission in Montreal (Mandarin speaking); and Nathan served his mission in The Ivory Coast (Cote d'Ivoire).

Home! (For the next 4 years, anyway)

Once we learned what our new address would be in France, we looked it up on Google.  It was a long journey from seeing our new home on Google and seeing it with our own eyes.

July 20th was our last sleep in our old house

21st-24th: hotel in Orleans

25th: hotel in Ottawa

26th-27th: hotel in Dayton

28th-29th: hotel in Cloverdale

30th-31st: hotel in Danville

August 1st: hotel in Lexington

2nd-3rd: Airbnb in Gig Harbor

4th: Patterson's house in Covington

5th-7th: hotel in Anaheim

8th-12th: Airbnb in Gilbert

13th: airplane over the Atlantic

14th-19th: Airbnb in Rennes

20th-26th: apartment in Paris (Neuilly-sur-Seine)

August 27th: first sleep in our new house (Croissy-sur-Seine)

Le Chesnay Ward and Paris Temple

Today was our first time going to church in France. It was so lovely to make some new friends. In France there are 108 total congregations, within 10 stakes. Paris has 3 of those stakes. We are in the Paris France stake that has 8 wards and 1 branch. We're in Le Chesnay ward (though the chapel is in Versailles). Our chapel is within walking distance of the Paris temple (which is in Le Chesnay), so after church we walked there. There are 2 missions- Paris and Lyon. Thirty years ago, there were 3 missions - Paris, Bordeaux, and Marseille, where Leonard served. Ever since then, I've wanted to live here. I can't believe my wish came true!

Toot Bus

After Kaleb left, we were all so tired, but we wanted to enjoy our last Saturday before school started.  Off to ride the Toot Bus we went!  The tour lasts about 2 hours (if you don't hop off).  We ended up riding the whole loop twice, yep 4 hours on a bus seeing beautiful sites in Paris.

We saw a Burger King on the fanciest McDonald's we've ever seen.  We thought it'd be fun to eat at, but by the time we got off the bus it was too far away.

We got some Croque Monsieur and Croque Madame sandwiches at a bistro close by, yum!

He's off to Rome!

At 3:00 this morning, he left to spend the next school year in Rome with his architecture cohort from Notre Dame. I'm so excited for him, but I miss him already!

 

Paris!

It was supposed to be a laundry and grocery day. And it was. Until 5 pm hit and we couldn't resist the call of the city. And Kaleb was leaving for Rome the next day...

The Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame Cathedral, and the sites along the Seine (yeah, we walked from the tower to the cathedral). Fun times. Sore feet.