Packing up & saying goodbye

The house is mostly packed and we are saying good bye to our home of 8yrs. A home that saw us get married, have two beautiful girls, become part of a great neighbourhood. MJ found her urban tribe, the running moms -- friends that will last a lifetime. To all of you who have been a part of this chapter, thank you for great Ottawa memories. Relationships to draw strength from, and a place for the story to pick up again when we return. - rbc & mj

Finally...our new home!!!

We just received word that our file for Avenue Bousquet has been accepted. Just minutes from the Eiffel Tower and Napoleon's tomb, this will be base camp for our European Adventure. :)

View Larger Map

Paris "Look See" trip was intense...but great!

So MJ and I shipped P&D off to Kingston, The County and Ahmerst Island for some quality grand parent, cousin & aunt and uncle time (thank you everyone - they had a great time), and we headed to Paris for our official "Look see" trip. We arrived on Wednesday, and came home on Sunday. We toured ~15 apartments, 4 schools & one bank. Wow, what a intense few days. Our Paris housing guide extraordinaire Pascaline (16 yrs in the business) really knows her stuff, and we came home with a short list of apartments (in the 7th & 16th), two school options & a new French bank account. We spent the last 1.5 days exploring neighbourhoods, testing walking distances and the Metro. We had an excellent dinner at Bowfinger and champagne cocktail at Buddha Bar.

Just prove we were there, MJ shot the standard tourist shot of yours truly with the ET -- D wanted to know where mommy was when I showed her the pic:). - rbc

The count down is on

With one month until our house in Ottawa closes (and we really need to be out), it finally feels like crunch time. Our family MJ, Ru, P & D are about to move to Paris for a two year adventure. Next week we'll head over for our look-see trip, pick an apartment, a school, and make an unlimited number of other decisions. When the house in Ottawa sold in 3 hrs, we knew the seal had been broken and it was game on. - rbc