In Nice

We made it to Nice with no problems. The most excitement was having to run the entire length of the Boston airport to make our connection. For some reason, our ticket had scheduled a 45 minute connection there! We flew to Boston, London, and Nice.

After we arrived yesterday afternoon, Eric and I went out to buy a few groceries. Sure enough, within 3 minutes of stepping outside of the front door, we ran into two people we knew: a nearby carpenter/cabinet maker who has cut some wood for us, and one of my best friends!

We're living in Le Chateau for 5 days until our renters leave--a lovely Australian family with 4 children. It's a bit of chaos right now as we're living out of suitcases and making do without our normal stuff (for example, we only have 2 working power adapters for all of the things that need to be charged).

Zari and Ivy started school today. Dio and Inga start next Monday. So far it's been pretty seamless.

I managed to get my body moving this morning. I dropped Ivy off at school, took care of her lunch paperwork (2x week as usual), and then went running. Then I ran lots of errands, the longest of which was to walk to the Liberation market (abotu 35 minutes each way) to buy a big load of produce. Inflation has hit France as well--prices are up, and they were up last year, too. It's so frustrating because I remember what I used to pay for so many items and it's nowhere near the same. By the end of the day, I was up to 18,000 steps.

We tried to get our car started but the battery was completely dead. We even used our handy jumpstarter, which usually works like a charm. But even that couldn't get it going. We decided to buy a new battery since it is original to when we bought the (used) car and who knows how old it is? The battery may even be original to the car, which I think is from 2011. Eric started changing the battery only to find out he needed a ratchet set to unfasted a connection at the bottom. We'll get that done tomorrow.

I bought two "2 good 2 go" surprise baskets, one from an Italian grocery store and one from a bakery. For 9 Euros total I came home laden with delicious things to eat. Eric and I both crashed in the early afternoon. I took a nap that was nearly impossible to come out of. I kept having dreams that I was trying to get up, only to realize (in my dream) that I was still dreaming and actually hadn't gotten out of bed.

We're going to see our piano tomorrow! While we were gone, it was being refinished with a black satin lacquer, its original color. It's over 100 years old and had gotten a bit battered with time. Some time mid-century, the black finish was removed and replaced with a clear finish that showed the underlying wood. But all of the defaults were surface-level. Soon Kawai will have a new brother Steinway! It's been quite the adventure, from finding it and realizing that we had mutual friends with the sellers, to finding a piano company that can carry it up 2 flights of stairs, to figuring out how to restore it.