We took the kids to the park and walked the wretched hills all around Sevres and Parc de St. Cloud. Definitely a thing you have to get used to, sorry mom!
That afternoon, I finished giving the kids their t-shirts and icebreakers and waited for our driver to arrive. As the ending neared, I took pictures with Malo and Julie out front and attempted to with Alex, but that didn't really work out. In fact, he wouldn't stand up or open his eyes, little stinker! I think as a combination of tiredness and denial that his (favoritely awesome) au pair was leaving, he wasn't up for the final goodbyes. Malo on the other hand, was full of hugs. He didn't quite understand the fact that this was his final time seeing me so he got pretty emotional after I had left according to Delphine. I love that kid so much! And then there's Julie. I gave her a second hug right before I left and as I went to pull away, she squeezed harder! We've decided that she has become the little sister I never had and I'm the big sister she never had. I mean, we nearly look related.
Either Alex's or Malo's attempt at taking a photo of Julie and I!
My goodbye with Delphine and Fred would come after I got back from Italy. And let me tell ya, it was a great good bye.
Our neighbor Martine arrived and took my mom and I to the airport. We tried communicating in French but apparently what I was saying didn't make sense to her....I dunno. But the Orly airport was so much easier to navigate than CDG so I think mom appreciated that. Especially since the trek to get to my house was insanity!
As we sat on the plane to Pisa, I got so heavy-hearted because 1) that was the last goodbye I would have with the kids, I was on a plane to Italy with my mom who's dream has been to visit Italy, and my contract as an au pair was OVER. I could not even express how magnificent it was to be done nannying. I kind of hated it.
As we took off, I looked out the window and saw the teeny-tiny little Eiffel Tower from the window and the Champs-Elysees and all the huge landmarks I lived around looking like little game pieces. Then we flew over the Alps! What an amazing view. Then we flew over the South of France and marveled at the beaches and basically just got super excited about heading to Tuscany where it was 100 degrees outside.
When we got to Pisa, the bus situation was kind of ridicules. We had to first figure out where the bus even was and then we had to figure out the chart that made no sense and we had to figure out which bus we needed in order to reach our hostel. Wowowowow it's hard traveling sometimes. As we parked our butts on the curb, we happened to witness the most magnificent sunset. I knew I was going to like Pisa. I already knew I loved Italy!
When we got on the bus, the bus driver was kind and basically waived everyone on without paying. As I sat there, I was all nerves trying to figure out what stop to get off at. Nothing was clearly marked or understandable because of, ya know, it being in Italian! I took the initiative (thank heavens) and asked the driver about our stop/hostel and he knew what it was! In very broken English, he personally stopped for us to get off and told us to walk down the street and where to turn at the church. What a saint!
Before we headed down the neighborhood road, we decided to get a pizza because we were starving and knew that we wouldn't come back out of the hostel. It was late and poor mom was still way jet-lagged. We went in and ordered a wood fired pizza to go that not only had a million amazing toppings, but had the authentic Napoli characteristics, was huge, and literally only cost 8 euros. MAGNIFICO. Welcome to Italy, mom.
We found the funky little hostel, opened the window to the 100 degree nighttime air, listened as the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack blasted from the courtyard party, and stuffed our faces with pizza. What a way to kick off the trip through Tuscany.
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