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Cake day: July 12th, 2023

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  • All of my adult friends I met at work. We all live hundred of km away from each other but go to our respective office 2 days a week. And on those days, we have lunch and drinks, they are my children godparents and we talk everyday. As a grown up if you move long distance, it is a lot harder to make friends and keep up with the older ones. You may not have a lot of time because of children especially is they are on the younger side. So your pool to get local mates becomes the school parents and work. It’s a lot easier to determine who you’d like to hang out with with people you spend 8 hours a day 5 days a week that the other mums you only see a few times a week as you all rush off your bicycle to drop you kid at school and have a very superficial relationship with.






  • I was offered by my employer to move to the USA with the husband and children to set up a local team for a few years and then return to Europe. Didn’t have questions about the pay, housing, nope. I had questions about healthcare. I usually end up once a year in the ER for myself, last stint was a miscarriage over Christmas with 6 ER meetings but I have a shit ankle and break various bones on the yearly because I don’t pay attention to where I walk. Add children: usual sickness plus all the stupid shit they do and end up in the ER for. Asked is the insurance had a zero deductible or something similar to what we have. Long story short, I didn’t want to leave our healthcare system and we stayed in Europe as all they offered wasn’t up to par with what we got.


  • My experience with Starbucks here in Europe is that it’s industrialized processed shit. Tastes good every once in a while but isn’t really healthy nor are the ingredients ok. On the other hand, in France, even the smallest supermarket has its own baker and pastry chefs who do daily fresh loafs of bread and baguettes / tradition and pastry. I like American bread that you get in your stores but consider it more of a cake as it’s quite sugary. Like slap some salted butter and jam on top of it, an espresso shot on the side and you’re set for a nice breakfast unless you’re diabetic.


  • I moved to a tiny village (1.2k inhabitants) at the outskirts of the Paris metro. We got:

    • 1 supermarket that also doubles as a post office
    • 1 bakery
    • 1 pastry chef
    • 1 pizzeria
    • 1 fancier restaurant
    • 1 pharmacy
    • 1 kindergarten (mandatory school for 3-6yo) and 1 primary school (for 6-10yo)
    • about 20 child-minders for the 0-3yo with working parents
    • 1 tennis, basket, football field
    • 1 gym for indoor tennis
    • 1 public library
    • 1 train station next town with direct trains to Paris in 40min
    • 6 bus stops along the Main Street with one line going to the train station
    • a church that only opens once a year for a concert of Christmas carols
    • 1 castle
    • we are next to a river so we got a ton of public paths along it where we jog, bike or just walk as well as a water reserve thing for animals where we go hiking

    Considering the size of the village and how many people live there, I’d say we’re pretty good on the 15 minutes thing.