We’re Back…Sigh.

The trip home yesterday was uneventful. Our worry (and it wasn’t much of a worry) was that the officer at Charles DeGaulle Passport Control would notice that we had stayed 145 days on a 90-day visa. In the event, the officer opened our passports, found an empty page, and stamped it with the exit stamp. He didn’t look for the entry visa or anything. We could have been in France for a year – two years! – as far as he was concerned. Wish we had been…

We also learned what happens to unoccupied houses:

• The Prius wouldn’t start because of a dead battery; the Rav4 turned over slowly, but it did start.
• I’d turned off the water heater and it wouldn’t turn back on. Now, after a 20-hour trip, there is nothing we wanted more than a shower, but ’twas not to be.
• Two circuits had flipped their breakers. No idea why, but it meant the wireless phone was not charged.
• Internet and phone service had not started as scheduled.
• Cellphone service had not started as scheduled.
• The local water district says we used a huge amount of water in the first half of August and would like $850, please. That battle is not done.
• The yard is green but looks like a jungle! It’s going to take weeks to get it back under control.

So that’s what greeted us last night. We ignored most of it and went to bed. This morning our friend Margaret left a breakfast casserole, so we had a hot meal (thank you, Margaret!); a couple phone calls got Internet and cellphones working again; another call got a hot water heater service call, so we had hot water by 11 this morning; the lawns got mowed and I started on the overgrown plants; the cars got charged and are working fine. So we’re good.

But geeze, mentally and emotionally, we are still in France. I think it will be a long time before that fades. I found myself today responding with “Ah, voilà” to lots of stuff, just like you hear all the time in France.

I’ll post a summary of our best memories and impressions in the next days. For now, I can only say that everyone should do something like this. We loved darn near every minute of the 145 days we were in France, and it ain’t gonna be easy to let that go.