The secret to younger looking legs...

Walk into any French pharmacy and you'll see a section devoted to weight loss for women in the form of creams, pills, syrups and yes, probably even suppositories. There's an entire army of products designed to give you thinner, younger looking legs. 

Here in Georgia, I've discovered another trick. Ladies, y'all listen up. You won't read this in Glamour.

Note: For best results, do this in the evening.

First, pour a glass of iced tea. (That's sweet tea, of course.) Lemon slice is optional. Now go sit on the porch, preferably in a rocking chair, under a ceiling fan. Sit there rocking and talking until the sun sets.

Note: You may feel itchy that night. Don't worry. It's normal.

The next morning, you will wake up with 15 to 25 bright red mosquito bites on your legs, ankles, feet and maybe even between your toes - right where your favorite sandals hit.

Tada! Younger looking legs. For even better results, put a big Band-Aid on one knee. Your legs now look like they belong to an eight-year-old.

On top of the world...

Pike's Peak, Colorado

So, how do we look in America? Happy, hugged, jet-lagged, caffeinated, dazzled and over-fed? That's what I thought. :)

50 things that are different in the US

One night last week as I was laying in bed, I started thinking about American milk. It comes in a jug and is measured in gallons. French milk comes in a bottle or a rectangular carton and is measured by liters. American milk is whole, 2%, 1% or skim. In France, it's either whole, half-skim or skim. In the US, it's fresh milk, but in France it's UHT (anything living boiled to death, basically). Americans can buy chocolate or strawberry flavored milk. French people can buy raw cow's milk.

It hit me that if plain old milk was this different... wow. My life was really about to look, feel, taste, sound and even smell really different soon.

I was right.

We landed at the Atlanta airport about 24 hours ago. (I know. Some of you have questions. The answers are Chick-Fil-A and WalMart. More to come soon!) In the time that we've been here, I've kept a mental list of things that strike me as being different than I'm used to in France.

You ready? Here it goes, in no particular order...

1. ice in drinks
2. garbage disposals
3. 110v and the shape of the outlets and plugs (had to buy an adapter for laptop and phone)
4. no walls around yards
5. free coffee refills
6. toilet bowls are filled SO high with water!
7. a huge whooshing sound when you flush!
8. eating desserts with a fork, not a spoon
9. the cereal choices take up an entire aisle
10. cars are huge, and so are the parking spaces
11. tipping servers
12. black-eyed peas
13. cute little mailboxes with the flags you put up
14. coupons and sales circulars in the newspaper
15. women wearing t-shirts
16. no license tags on the front of cars
17. ceiling fans
18. cottage cheese
19. everyone smiles!
20. free bags at the store, and they bag for you
21. driving on the left side of the road (just checking to see if you’re paying attention)
22. white eggs
23. huge drink glasses and to-go cups
24. oh yeah, to-go cups
25. blueberries
26. toothpaste choices take up half an aisle
27. sales!
28. the shape of the light switches
29. sportswear in public
30. American-style coffee (basically known as ‘diluted coffee’ in France)
31. school buses
32. school has started already! France is still summering it up.
33. people talking on cell phones in stores
34. baseball caps
35. carpeted floors
36. drinking straws
37. cash-back when you pay with debit card
38. signing with the little electronic pen thingy
39. newspapers delivered on the lawn in bags
40. salespeople ask if you’re finding everything okay
41. coffee is served with dessert, not after
42. cent coins are so lightweight!
43. drinking tap water rather than bottled
44. ice-makers in fridge doors
45. rocking chairs on porches
46. sweet tea
47. freezing air-conditioning
48. green money
49. fried okra
50. Solo cups

Went to Paris, then finally learned to œ, œ, œ...

Official proof: les Masson made it to Paris
Un très grand merci Keith, Deborah et Guillaume, for a wonderful trip!

Breakfast on Guillaume's balcony

The amazing view from his apartment

Sacré Cœur
(Six years in France and I just now this very minute learned the shortcut keys to get œ!)

Me. In Paris. On a fantastic Seine river cruise that was only €11. Highly recommend it.

Guillaume gave us a great tour of Lyon, his hometown, several years ago.
This weekend, we got the tour of his new home à Paris.

Et voilà!

Classy, for only €5.

I know you think the word 'classy' is spelled M-A-S-S-O-N. But it appears you can also spell 'thrifty' the same way.

We are allowed four pieces of checked luggage on our flight to the US. We currently own three pieces, so we needed to find a fourth quickly. Considering we can buy good quality luggage at a better price in the US, now is not the time to drop big euros on a suitcase.

Anyone who has traveled in Africa has seen the woven bags that serve as suitcases and look kind of like a blue and red plaid bag of rice. That was the kind of bag I had in mind. We'd just cram it full of clothes, zip it up and use it for one trip across the Atlantic.

So I asked Jonathan to go buy one at one of the Arab markets in Lyon. He came back with a very special bag. And would you believe it was only 5€ (just over $6)?

Isn't she a beauty?

I'm not sure which part I love/hate most: the faux denim with pink lettering, or the 'English' expressions written on it.

Ture dat.

We reconstructed a large cardboard box inside the bag
to give it some support. I'd hate for this beauty to get damaged...

Yup. That's our bag. See the tie on the handle?

I love this. Jonathan cut one of my old scarves into strips to tie onto our luggage to help identify it on the baggage carousels. It made sense on the plain black suitcases. But on this one, it just cracks me up. I'm pretty sure we'd be able to ID it without this strip o' scarf. Just another touch of Classy Masson. They really should bottle this stuff and sell it...

She's all ready to go!

* Apologies in advance to Holly who is picking us up at the airport, and therefore will be seen in public with this bag. (Hooly, you can pretend like you don't know us if you want to.)

Look, Mom - no hands!

It says a lot when you're standing on the steps of the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur, one of the best-known landmarks in France, with the city of Paris spread out in front of you... and yet you can't take your eyes off a guy with a soccer ball.

Okay - maybe just one more.

Monet's garden...

The view from Claude Monet's bedroom window

As you may recall from an earlier post entitled 'Desperately avoiding culture...' we're not the ones to go to if you have a question about art or history... or art history, for that matter. So how did we, of all people, wind up walking around the gardens of a famous impressionist painter this weekend? Well, let's just say we're thankful to have cultured friends who know about these things!

Water lilies in his pond. Look familiar?

Cool, eh? More here.

Recognize this bridge we're on?

Same one!

I love the dark pink ones.

One of the garden rows leading to his house

Beautiful.

I love it, yes I dew.

Peaceful.

Soft.

Refreshing.

Energizing.

"Paris must be great..."

If I had a centime for everytime I heard "It must be great to live in Paris..."

But in fact, we don't live in Paris. We live in Lyon, a very cool city of about 1.4 million people located just under 300 miles south of Paris. If you take the high-speed train, it's about two hours away.

"So you must go to Paris for the weekend, like, all the time, right?" Um... Not exactly. We've been a grand total of once - four years ago. This means that out of our approximate 267 weekends spent in France, 266 were not in Paris.

However, this weekend we will increase our total number of visits to Paris together by 100%. 

Stay tuned, y'all.

Lots of change...

There comes a point where some of your most carefully guarded possessions no longer have any value to you. I'm not speaking spiritual here. I'm speaking international move ready.

Take, for example, my wallet. In exactly two weeks, its contents will get a serious make-over. I'll trade out my euros for dollars, my bus tickets and Vélo'V bike rental card for my Georgia driver's license, and my frequent shopper card for Yves Rocher for one at Publix or Kroger. (That's Hy-Vee to you Iowans reading this.)

Some items living in my wallet will simply no longer be of use: the photocopy of my passport (lovely photo and all) that I carry when I'm outside the US, the small plastic disc I use for renting shopping carts here in France, and my French Sécu healthcare card. (I am very sad to see that one go. No more inexpensive doctor's visits and prescriptions...) Oh, and my French residency card that we fought so hard to keep for five years.

Realizing how much change my wallet is about to go through (get it? change) makes me feel like my crazy emotions about this life transition are pretty justified. Let's face it, if my wallet is about to experience THIS MUCH change... so am I. And it's okay for me to feel confused about that right now.

Classified ads...

Editorial

Preparing to move internationally is a crazy time period. However, I suspect moving from France is a bit more challenging than some countries. (Feel free to correct me - I hope never to become an expert on the subject).

We went to several offices to close out contracts this weekend. Internet, phone, gas, electricity... Closing them out isn't a big deal. What gets tricky is when we ask about how to go about paying our last bill.

Confusion crosses their face, then a blank look.

Apparently most people just cut their service and leave the country. They don't pay their very last bill for services to date. At two offices we were quietly told to just skip town and not worry about it. "Everyone does it... and you're students, right? Oh, all the students do it."

But my mom taught me that just because everyone else is doing it doesn't mean I should be. And then there was something about a bridge...

Help needed

Does anyone know where to go to/how to pay our last French bills? Specifically EDF, GDF and Orange?

Can anyone tell me what I should buy in France that I'll want to have in the US? Which French products (not limited to food) will I have a hard time finding at WalMart or Target?

Proofreader for Jonathan's cover letter and resumé in French. Thanks, M!

For sale

Nothing! We sold everything. Thanks to all who came out to pick up their stuff and shop the Masson flea market.

Announcements

On August 15th, ICCL is having a picnic in the Parc de la Tête d'Or. We'll be there. How about you?

Lost

Kari's glasses have disappeared in the midst of the move. Last seen three days ago. See the girl with bruises on her legs from bumping into coffee tables if you have any information.