Petit Palais, zoo, gospel concert...

We finally have a moving date, i.e. one-way flight tickets to Finland. Only a couple of weeks left anymore. In addition to selling stuff and packing post packages we try to enjoy what Paris has to offer. There will be plenty of things we both will miss from here once settling to Finland (I don't think our baby will miss anything since she'll be with mummy and daddy also in the next country) and actually I made a post about what I will miss from France already two years ago. One thing add would add to that list right away and it's my zumba lessons. I was so lucky when I ended up exactly on my current teacher's classes, since I don't think I would find a more suitable zumba teacher for myself: the energy, the music and the speed are absolutely awesome! I was so happy to know that they had reopened in the summer when we were in Finland, after over half a year of forced closure. To be honest, I would have missed the lessons for several months even without the pandemic because I was pregnant and gave birth. So that's one more reason to add why I happened to have a baby at the best possible time, haha... H will surely miss his brass band - and so will I. But oh well, we both also know that Finland gives us a lot of things we couldn't have here. However, here are some of our last experiences that Paris area had offer to us:

Petit Palais

I had never been inside either Grand Palais or Petit Palais that are located quite in the center of Paris. They both are famous sites and I have walked pass them several times. Grand Palais is currently under construction, so when we got a friend of ours to look after our baby for a few hours, we decided to have a lunch in the center and check the inside of Petit Palais. The entrance is free and the collection looks rather small from the doors, but we came to realize that the place was very big. We were surprised that they don't ask for any entrance fee to see a better collections than some museums have. Petit Palais definitely made to my list of recommendations what to see in Paris. 

"The Defence of Paris", paying homage to
Parisians' resistance during the war of 1870.

Parc Zoologique

H had not been in a zoo since his childhood, so one place we wanted to check in Paris before moving was the zoo. Of course I was also interested since one would expect that the zoo in Paris is better than in many other places. We took our baby with us and managed to go around the whole huge area without much of a problem with her. We ran out of the bottled milk on the way back home though and the other passengers got to enjoy some baby crying in the tram...

For my surprise the zoo was missing two big animals that many zoos have: an elephant and a tiger. But the place is big and interesting even without those specific animals. Monkeys, giraffes, birds, rhinos, penguins, fish etc etc. But the favorites for both us were the manatees. We had never seen those on live before and they truly are mesmerizing. 

The manatees were amazing!

New Gospel Family @ Bataclan

For several years I have wanted to see a gospel choir and coincidentally happened to see an advertisement of one one a few days before it took place. It was hold at Bataclan, a famous concert hall in Bastille area. We had booked last row seats but at the spot we were offered better places in the area that had many empty seat rows. No complains from our side. The music was too loud at times and the singing couldn't be heard well over the instruments but we enjoyed the experience. They had softer songs completely vocal only, and also some more lively songs when they even invited the audience to stand up and clap their hands. I couldn't imagine having that kind of music in the church but for me it was very nice to see and hear people singing spirituals so full of joy.

Street performances

Talking about music, it has been nice to see some performances appearing also on the streets again. We have enjoyed some street music and other entertainment even in our neighborhood in Gentilly. Paris and France is so full of art and we'll miss it.

A string quartet in a park near our home

Street performance in Gentilly

A jazz band playing in a second-hand store. 
Our baby fell asleep with the music.

Warm evening and music in the center of Paris

Giving birth & traveling with a baby

Giving birth in France

Towards the end of my pregnancy a lot of people asked me if I go to Finland to give birth. I had never even thought of that as an option after getting pregnant. My whole pregnancy was followed in France and all of the information about it was in the French registries. Besides, H's work is here, so we couldn't just take off and go to Finland for months - since it's neither recommended to fly at the late pregnancy nor with a small baby. And additionally I had heard that the French system concerning pregnancy, delivery and post-partum is very good, even better than in Finland.

So our baby was born a few months ago in Paris. My pregnancy follow-ups got to about twice a week until I went into labor some days after reaching 40 weeks. After confirming my labor had started we (I and H) were given options to stay in the "pre-work" room or to go a bigger room upstairs to wait for the labor to progress. We spent time from the early morning until the afternoon in our room after which we had another check-up to know how much I had opened. During this check-up I decided I want to have an epidural and I was taken to the delivery room. I got very nice and English-speaking midwifes and doctors to take care of me and explain everything. It all went very smoothly even though the whole labor lasted for 27 hours since my contractions started!

The biggest issue happened when the baby was born and she didn't cry. While I stayed in the delivery room, she was taken to another room. We were explained that it's usual to have some problems breathing but that she needs to be transferred to another hospital that has babies' emergency clinic. When the ambulance nurses stopped by at my room before taking our little girl, they explained very well and with good English that it's nothing critical and what are the most probable reasons for her problems. Even though it was sad to see our girl going away with them, we felt relieved knowing everything that was going on. Unfortunately though, the nearest hospital with babies' emergency didn't have any place so she was taken further outside Paris. We got a phone number which to call to in order to get information how her situation is improving.

After a few hours of sleep, the staff in my hospital told me that they try to organize a place for me in the same hospital where our baby was taken to. Or if it was not possible, they would at least offer us an ambulance ride to visit her. Later during the same day I was transferred which ended up to be a very good thing since we spent several days hospitalized. Even though the baby received several treatments, I was able to go see her anytime and time to time have her in my room. The staff in the second hospital was also very kind and tried to explain everything to us even though not everyone spoke English there. But combined with our knowledge of the French language, we managed without problems.

Our little darling was born with long finger nails.

We got an ambulance ride to the other hospital.
I decided to walk so they carried our bags instead of me.

Babies' special treatment section in the hospital.
Seeing other babies there we realized how lucky
our baby was not to have anything more serious. 

During the week in the hospital we were in the center of the French health care system and couldn't complain at all. We got good service and had to pay 0€ for the whole time. This is why we pay taxes. Later, after getting home we were visited twice by a midwife and got to go follow the baby's weight and discuss in a maternity clinic. (The actual check-ups of the babies are done by the chosen pediatric and I chose my own doctor since she happens to be specialized also in newborns. How lucky!) And now I am offered 10 sessions of physiotherapy paid by the social security. I really don't have much bad things to say about having baby in France. Except that it might be tricky to find all the information if the system and the language are not familiar...

Traveling with a small baby

We had planned to travel to Finland for some weeks in the summer. So after the delivery we needed to start the process to acquire a passport for the baby: registering her at the city hall to get the birth certificate, send the needed documents to the Finnish consulate to get her registered also in Finland, take an acceptable photo of the little one (not so easy when she should have the eyes open, she jiggles all the time and our hands should not be in the picture) and then apply for the passport and wait for it to come. But we made it all on time for our booked flight 6,5 weeks after the girl was born.

I had thought of taking direct flights when flying to Finland and back. No extra take-offs and landings and extra traveling time with the little one. But we happened to find super cheap flights through Germany and couldn't resist the offer. So, we packed enough changing clothes, diapers and pumped milk for the baby to survive for a slightly longer travel, and took a taxi to the CDG airport. We managed everything well at the airport but I was happy I was traveling together with H. It was good to have two pairs of hands so that one could push the luggage and one the baby stroller. We could use the stroller all the way to the gate (except during the security check when I had to get the baby out in order to have the stroller scanned, too) and then leave for the staff to load to the plane. In Germany the stroller was waiting for us right after getting out of the plane again. Very easy indeed. And because of traveling with a small child we were allowed to use the priority lines and board together with the first class passengers.

I had worried beforehand that the take-offs and landings might be tricky with a baby if she gets troubled by the pressure changes. But there was no problem at all since she slept basically through both of the flights. And if she happened to wake up, it didn't take long before she fell back to sleep while giving some milk. I guess the trickiest part was to change her diaper in the small airplane toilets and I am grateful H took care of that (which he did also because he sat on the aisle seat so that I could have more privacy if I needed to nurse the little one).

So we got to Finland without any problem though at the Helsinki-Vantaa airport they only gave the separate basket part of our stroller after the flight, and the wheels ended up going to the conveyor belt with the big luggage. It was somewhat uncomfortable to carry the basket in our hands but at least we didn't have to wait in the health check queue because of having a small baby. Somehow our baby managed to sleep also most of the way in the car when we went from Helsinki to my parents' home. I was so sure she is going to be super hungry when we finally reach the destination since she had eaten less than normally due to the long sleeping times. But who would have guessed, she slept so well the following night too!

It will probably be slightly more challenging to travel with a toddler in the future, but it seems that traveling with a small baby is not really that difficult. Or at least it was not for us and I have read similar stories online from other parents, as well. It's just important to have a few bottles of milk, especially for the car rides when it is not possible to nurse.

We slept at the Helsinki-Vantaa airport hotel because we had a very early
flight in the morning to return to France (and H needed to take a covid test
before it since he was not fully vaccinated yet). I think her bed was big enough...

A very happy baby at the German airport transferring.
Why not to be happy when one has slept so much?

Last months in France

Now we have already returned to France and adjusted to taking care of the baby without the help of the grandparents again. H has started to go to his workplace most of the weekdays which leaves me alone with the little one for a big part of the day. But I think it is thanks to that that I have finally found a rhythm for her day. It is so much easier when I decided to fix her feeding times exactly 3 hours apart and have her take a nap always before the next feeding session. 

During our vacation in Finland H got a job there, so we will leave France behind us in a few months. We have started to go through our stuff, sell some and already pack and send something to Finland. We wish to enjoy the good things in Paris and France when we still can and when everything starts to open again (museums, movies, restaurants and hobbies are accessible with a health pass), though taking care of a baby limits our possibilities a bit. But anyway, we have to gather some more good memories before moving our life to Finland.

Last working day in France

It looks like my career in France is over now. Yesterday was my last day at work as a nanny for the French family I have been working for for the last 1,5 years, and today is my first day of the maternity leave. I cannot believe this day actually came. Or of course it was about to come, but it feels so weird that from now on I don't go to work and see those lovely kids I took care of. Officially living with benefits instead of a salary. We won't be moving out of France for at least some more months but it looks like we might move soon enough for me not to return to work here anymore. I will stay at home with the baby also after the 16 weeks of maternity leave.

Working with kids had become more challenging for a few months already. I remember thinking in December how I can manage with my growing belly for 3 more months... I have told the 4yo big brother many times that I cannot run with him anymore but otherwise we have played and lived quite much like before I was pregnant. However, I started to notice that sitting on the floor and going around for the after-school activities made my body tired and sometimes hurt when returning home. So I was also looking forward to this day when I can relax more and be at home for dinner before 8pm. Nevertheless, it doesn't change the fact that it was sad to say bye to my employers and their absolutely adorable children and give back their home key yesterday evening. At the moment I don't feel like it, but it will probably be weeks or even months before I see them next time. Unless if I get bored staying home alone and I randomly take a metro to say hi. I will also miss the views that I saw daily on my way to work and back. I have to say I quite liked watching the buildings for those few metro stations that the metro was not running underground.

Passing by some of the most famous
sights in Paris every day.

The 4yo learning to understand the metro map..

I was so touched by the cards I got from the French family.
The 4yo had even chosen to start coloring with green and orange
because he remembered those are my favorite colors.

The spring here has been rather quiet otherwise. Covid and the restrictions have limited our free time possibilities but at least we have been able to enjoy the weather when it was very warm for a couple of weeks in February. We even went for a picnic with H in the floral park a bit outside Paris. Not so many flowers were blooming yet but thinking about Finland that was still covered with snow, it felt nice to warm up in the sun light and breath some fresh air. Celebrating the Lunar New Year in the middle of February ended up being quite small for us even though it is a big thing in Vietnam. We bought some Vietnamese food from a Vietnamese market H found out about and I got us some peach flowers from the Asian district. A couple of weeks later we gathered with some of H's friends to have a bigger Vietnamese meal together. It always keeps me amazed how many different things Vietnamese people like to cook for one single meal. But I definitely don't complain. :) 

in a Vietnamese market

We even had snow for a few days here. But the negative
side of that was that all the playgrounds were shut.

Being treated well by Vietnamese friends. (Though I have to admit
that I was not too keen on trying the gelatinoided mushroom-porc.) 

The floral park just outside Paris

Daffodils were one of the few flours blooming yet.

So from today on I stay more at home and prepare for the delivery - that hopefully won't happen for a few weeks still. We have taken already 5/7 of the prenatal courses that are offered in France for free and next week I will have the last two of them. We have been lucky to have a midwife who can speak English and so few participants on the same lessons that she has been able to translate almost everything for us. Intensive listening for over an hour in French would ben quite a challenge for both me and H. We just have to cross our fingers to have English-speaking staff on the delivery day, too. Until that I try to learn some important vocabulary in French just in case. Having a third lockdown starting tonight won't affect my life too much since I plan to take it easy for the next weeks. Except that I might not be able to see my friends that much even though I now have more free time to do so.

The prepare class for birth

I have to start taking walks every day now that I won't be going out
for work anymore. Luckily the parks here offer nice blossoming.

Being pregnant in France

We're expecting a baby! For a long time I was afraid of the idea of getting pregnant while living in France. Having already had moved back to Finland would have offered me a system I'm already more or less familiar with, the support of my family and friends better, and a language I can fully understand. Here we hardly have our own network of people who could help with the pregnancy or the becoming baby. Well, of course France is still a modern Western country that surely knows how to support an expecting family and we trust the system. But no doubt, it is still quite different. But all in all, now that we know the baby is coming, the timing seems quite good and we're of course very excited. We've got a huge blessing from God!

About pregnancy in general

I had a hunch about being pregnant already before the pregnancy test, and within the following weeks some common pregnancy symptoms reminded me of the little one every day. Sometimes it has been difficult to say what symptoms are caused by the pregnancy and what could be some other infection or problem that should be treated separately. It is quite safe to say that I had morning sickness most probably just due to the hormonal changes but what about my nose getting suddenly more filled with mucus and that leading to a mild head-ache and even ears getting irritated..? Suddenly my own body is acting differently and understanding its signals and reacting to those is getting more difficult. Before the pregnancy I would have never thought of eating something right away when feeling nauseous. But when having the morning sickness, grabbing something small to eat usually helped.

Even though pregnancy probably always causes some uncomfortableness, I know I have been lucky to have so little problems. Nothing bigger has bothered my usual life, except that once during the first trimester we were afraid of having a miscarriage. Luckily that ended up to be a false alarm and everything went back to normal with a week of sick leave. However, around the midway of my 9 months waiting it already started making me tired of being pregnant. Despite the fact that we're getting a baby of our own, pregnancy is not the most pleasurable time of my life. Some of the few moments when I have actually enjoyed this, is when we have gone to the ultrasounds. Seeing the baby grow and move around - especially when I still couldn't feel a thing - always brought a smile to our faces. Also feeling the kicks clearly for the first times was such a great experience I had waited for. Now I am getting close to the end of the second trimester and the movements can be felt and even seen daily.

Now is a good time to start buying baby clothes.
I am so excited, they are just so cute!

About pregnancy in France in the eyes of a foreigner

Like it wouldn't be enough of a challenge just to be pregnant for the first time when everything is new, but I (we) have the extra challenge of getting through this as foreigners in the country we live in. When the home pregnancy test showed 'positive', I was happy but also got my head full of questions. What do I do now? Where do I inform this? Who is going to follow my pregnancy and where? What are the first things to do? What if I don't get care in English and I cannot understand the French they speak? Or what if I don't understand everything even in English? My vocabulary surely is lacking what it comes to medical terminology.

Luckily my medicin traitant (my own doctor) was a big help in this. Once again I felt so lucky and relieved I had found her. She explained how the French system during pregnancy works in general, what things I have to take care of at first, what are usual tests during pregnancy in France etc. What I needed to do first - in addition to the laboratory test to confirm the pregnancy and check all kind of values in my blood - was to get an insurance. I haven't had a carte mutuelle (an additional insurance card to cover expenses after the usual health insurance that covers around 30-70% dependent on where I go) but now was a time to get one. That was a struggle of its own to google in French what would be a good insurance for me that covers expenses I will probably have but that is not too expensive per month. And then discussing things on the phone calls - of course mostly in French. And then some delay when the insurance guy forgot to send me correct stuff... But we managed to get me one. H is such a big help especially because he speaks better French than I do.

Another thing that has to be taken care of very early in pregnancy in France, is to book a hospital where you want to give birth. Many hospitals here emphasize that you must contact them within the first one or two months of your pregnancy. That was quite surprising for me. Luckily my doctor gave recommendations for two hospitals and we messaged the one that was closer to our home. Basically the pregnancy here is followed by a mid-wife or a gynecologist for the first 5-6 months and after that the monthly checks are done in the chosen hospital. My doctor recommended also a mid-wife for me and she promised to check whether that mid-wife speaks English. Since I didn't get any message from my doctor, I went to the first mid-wife visit trusting that we have a common language. I was wrong. She spoke only very very little English and could only translate some easy things that I could understand in French, too. Being pregnant for the first time and a bit nervous to experience everything, I was so worried I also have to have my monthly checks without being sure what I am told to. If ever, then it's during the pregnancy when I would like to know what is happening. However, this mid-wife guided me for my first ultrasound scan to a different place where I had a younger and lovely mid-wife who also spoke good English. So, I booked all of my first check-ups to be with her. At the hospital I haven't had as good luck. I have had two appointments there and both of the times had to mostly deal with people who don't speak much of English. Also all the material they gave us from the hospital was in French and it is quite tiring to go through them trying to find some useful information.

Should I read all of this through in French to find
out if they include something useful for us..?

The hospital offered us our first feeding bottle.

In addition to the monthly check-ups with a mid-wife or in the hospital, I go for blood tests every month. There is this one disease called 'toxoplasmosis' that I had never heard of before. It's a disease that can infect people via soil or the excrement of cats and even though it is not dangerous to normal people, it can cause harm for the unborn baby. It is rather common here in France (and I think anywhere in the Southern Europe) so pregnant women are checked in their first blood test whether they already have immunity for it. Being a Finn and quite hygienic, I had never had it, so now they check me for it once a month. Therefore I am also advised to wash all the vegetables and fruits really well and avoid eating fresh salad in the restaurants. And I should not pet cats a lot. What a fate I had meeting the most human-friendly cat I have ever seen just a bit after I was given these advise! The cat threw herself in front of me and begged for scratching. I could only swallow my tears... Luckily I have found a few good sides about being pregnant in France, as well. The photo below is my biggest help in every-day life.

Pregnancy gives some extra restrictions to my life but it also
offers some good sides. I can use the priority line in the
supermarket when the other lines to the cashier are very long.
(Even though the first time I dared to use it, the cashier lady
didn't notice my growing belly through the winter jacket
and pointed out to me that it is for priority persons only...)

Of course I also have to take care of some bureaucracy etc. things that are not always the easiest things to handle living in France. Registering myself as a pregnant woman in the systems and applying for getting maternity leave payment (which lasts only for 16 weeks here!) and so on. I just hope I have not missed anything vital because I have heard that if you are late with some announcing or applications, it may took for ages to get the benefits afterwards.

About pregnancy during covid-19

There are both good and bad sides about being pregnant now that there's a world-wide pandemic. Having my belly growing, running and other harder exercise are getting more and more uncomfortable. That's why I don't really miss my zumba lessons that have been cancelled since last October. Even if they could open again, I wouldn't be joining them before the baby is here. But I hope that next summer I will have a chance to go and dance there again. The same way I wouldn't have too much energy to go around for some culture or meeting people if everything was open here now. So if I were to be pregnant in France, now is the perfect time for it when I cannot enjoy the good sides Paris offers. (Of course sometimes we still would like to go out and have a dinner in a restaurant or go see a movie or theatre or something. But that we have to just wait for.)

Mentioning a couple of negative sides about pregnancy during corona. One of the exercise forms I would like to do now is swimming. H also used to go swim twice a week before the lockdowns, so we are both very sad that the swimming halls have been closed for a long time now, too. All we can do is to go for walks (or H for runs) and exercise at home. Due to the covid restrictions it has also been more challenging to book appointments for blood tests or doctors because they have less available times online. Nevertheless, by checking every few days, I have been able to book good times to check for toxoplasmosis and other needed tests for now. But maybe the most bothering cause of covid-19 for me has been the fact that H cannot join me for the hospital visits. In October for the first visit, he could come with me to do the administrative procedures and talk with the secretary, even though the actual discussion with the mid-wife was denied from the spouses. During the 6th month appointment in January the guard would have let him only sit right next to the front door and not join me for any part of the visit. So I had to survive all alone which made me feel both sad and insecure about understanding French well enough. But I made it. With some repetition and little confusion at times. Luckily many people understand some English even if they don't speak it.

Life in the second French lockdown

It has been nearly two weeks since the second covid-19 lockdown started in France. To be honest, it didn't change my life that much because we have been wearing masks outside home for months now and also my zumba lessons were forced to cancel already in October. But of course there have been certain changes we can do nothing about.

Everyone who can do their work from home, are highly recommended to do so - even though I have heard that in some places in France people still mostly go to their offices. Paris area being one of the most infected places, it is noticeable that more people stay at home here. Also H is working at home now, but since I cannot do télétravail, I continue going to work normally. I have noticed that there are less people in the trains but that is only a positive thing for me. Naturally the lockdown has forced me to some modifications at my work, too. The parents of the children I take care of, also work at home most of the time. Therefore, I try to spend as much time outdoors in the parks with the kids as possible. The parents will have peace to work for longer and it is also easier for me to handle the kids when the parents are not around. Of course the kids are super excited to see their mom and dad at home, so it's tricky for me to keep the kids away from them if they are still working. And these weeks I am not working with the Finnish baby I have taken care of during the last months. Her mother is not really able to go anywhere either, so they have no need for me.

I also have to have special permits whenever leaving the home. For my work, I always carry three papers with me: 1 for proving that I am needed at work and what travelling it includes, 1 for the school to pick the big brother up, and 1 for the day care to pick the little sister up. In addition, I write at least three certificates every day online and download them to my phone: both for going to work and coming home and additionally one for spending an hour in the park with the kids. (One is allowed to spend a maximum of one hour in the nearby park or within one kilometer from their homes when ticking the correct box in the permit certification.) I have never seen anyone checking the certificates but once I saw a guard going around the playground checking if everyone is wearing a mask. At the moment France requires all the people above age of 6 to wear a mask in the public places. Also the school yard behind our own garden in Gentilly is now filled with kids playing their masks on.

This is what I have to fill every day for
each separate purpose I am outside home.

I bet the lockdown is tougher for H than it is for me. He hardly leaves home while I still go to work normally and I also do the groceries most of the time. His band rehearsals are also cancelled ever since we were not allowed to go outside between 9 pm and 6 am - this rule came into effect two weeks before the actual lockdown. Home also offers more distraction to his work. In our small apartment he can see the bed and all of our 10+ music instruments from his working spot. Too many temptations... 

So, our life is basically about work, doing necessary shopping, sometimes going for a walk or a run, and otherwise spending time at home. We cannot meet our friends, go walking around the city, visit any place or much else. Almost every place from cafes to sights is also closed, with the exception of restaurants that sell food out. We also have bought a take-away a couple of times to support the locals. As an interesting new rule, supermarkets have not been allowed to sell non-essential items since last week Tuesday. This is in order to help smaller shops to have customers, too, and survive through these hard times. We are not completely sure if this was a great idea even though we get the point. Now people are also forced to travel more if they need something. Out of interest, I checked the second floor of the supermarket where I usually do our groceries and noticed that they have put fences around many shelves there. All the Christmas decorations, toys, books and most of the clothes were not accessible for the customers on the spot. They had notes in the fences saying that all of that stuff would be available to order from their websites.

Everything "non-essential" in put behind the
fences in the supermarkets. I wonder who
decides what is essential and what not.

Toys, books, clothes, most of stuff restricted to
buy at the supermarket. Pens, underwear and
kitchenware were still accessible.

This is the non-food section in Lidl one day. I am 
not sure if it was empty due to the new restrictions
or for some other reason.

Nice walks in the centre of Paris are on a break now.

This lockdown will last at least for four weeks, until the beginning of December, but there is a big chance that it will be extended with a couple of weeks. There are still tens of thousands of new cases reported in France every single day and lots of people are in the need of hospital care or intensive care. We keep following data in our Covid application that provides all kind of numbers to its users. We can only hope that the worst part gets over before the Christmas week so that we will be able to fly to Finland.

Today's info at my covid application.
A few days ago the new cases data
reached around 60000 in 24 hours.

The occupancy rate of the covid-19
patients taking of all the usual
intensive care hospital beds in
France is getting really high...

To end this blog update with something more positive, I want to share an experience I had in a restaurant before the lockdown. I met my friend in the centre near Notre Dame and we ended up having our lunches in La Bucherie, a restaurant that had a very out-going waiter. He didn't stuck in talking only about their menu but shared already at the door how he doesn't like the French language - even though he was French himself. He asked every single customer where they were from and often managed to say a word in everyone's language, also in Finnish and in Hungarian (because my friend in from Hungary). He even remembered some other customers origin when a couple came there for the second time. Later we had all kind of discussions while he had no customers to serve and at some point he went inside to put on a playlist of popular Finnish songs. I was very excited to hear all the pop hits from the past decades and really appreciated to way the waiter was very professionally an untypical customer service representative.

The best waiter I have ever had!

Finnish baby & corona restrictions

My second year as a nanny has started rather nicely - if you don't consider the restrictions that covid-19 has caused in France and Paris. I continue taking care of the two young kids (now 2 yo and 4 yo) of a French family that I started with last September. It has been amazing to follow the growth of them - and I am not talking only about physical or skill growth. Their understanding of English has amazed me and many other people in their lives. Children really pick up languages so easily and fast! A year ago when I started as their nanny, they understood basically nothing I said. Nevertheless, I spoke only in English to them from the very first day. It was kind of hard when the big brother was asking about "maman" and "papa" after the school and he couldn't understand that was what I talked about when I said "mommy" and "daddy". He slowly started to pick up some words and phrases, and now after a year with me he understand basically everything I say to him! And he carefully listens to what I say because if I use a word he doesn't yet understand, he always asks what it means. Absolutely unbelievable for a 3 - 4-year-old! He doesn't yet speak much English and most times he does is when he wants something (he knows to say "help, please" and such) or when he is on the mood to repeat some stuff I randomly say. I usually spend only a little bit of time with the little sister but she has also started to understand what I ask her. It's so nice to see your own impact on the kids!

But this French family is not my only employer anymore. Since I mostly start working in the afternoons by picking the big brother up, I have thought already for quite some time that I could combine my job with another part-time position. And last spring I found a perfect job I could take, thanks to a Facebook group that is meant for Finnish people in Paris area. I was supposed to start working for them family already before the summer but corona postponed their need for me. But this month I finally got to meet the 6-month-old happy baby of Finnish parents. Her mother is still staying at home with her (which is not very common in France considering that the mother's leave is only 16 weeks and many babies start going to the nursery at the age of only a few months), so I mostly go there to give some own time for the mom and enable her to leave the house without the baby sometimes. So far it has been great to help there, as well. I am so happy I have two great families with nice parents and nice children to work with! And I am getting more experience also of younger children after working in a preschool.

So all in all, I cannot complain about my current life. But of course living in France during the corona time also has some negative aspects, too. The biggest issue for me is wearing the mask. Practically every single time and all the time when I go outside home or my employers' homes. It is mandatory to have a mask even on the streets in Paris now. Think about first walking to the train station with a mask and then taking the hot train (because until this week it has still been like summer here) with many people in it. Then you have to walk to the school, squeeze yourself between other parents and nannies picking up the children and then you finally get to walk to a fresh park with the child. But. You have to wear the mask also in the park. And the temperature is above 30. Last week I was just dreaming of the becoming winter when wearing a mask will have the positive side of keeping your face warm. But no matter hot or cold, wearing a mask for hours each day definitely doesn't make good for the skin. Even H who has somewhat a perfect skin has started to use lotions because the nose and chin area just get so dry... 

Our everyday life equipments

My kid took this photo once when we were
in the park after school. Adults wear masks but
small kids don't need to.

Cycling and eating are the only occasions I don't wear
mask outdoors. One more reason to use the city e-bikes.
Here I am on my way to the Finnish family. They also leave
nearby l'Arc de Triomphe, just like my other employer. 

Southern France

Finally! I have wanted to see Southern France since my first year living in France, and finally had a good chance to go there. H took one week off from his work and we planned a 6-day trip to see different towns. Travelling by train limited our options where to go to, so finally our destinations were set to Avignon and Marseille.

Old and one-colored town of Avignon

Avignon is a smaller town on the way from Paris to Marseille, about 100 km before it. From the very first views it seemed quite unique: pretty much all the houses had sand color walls with no extra paint on them and there was an old stone wall around the whole centre area of the town. In addition the old houses were left to look old without renovations made. That gave the town a lovely touch. We sat down for the best burger and tartar dishes we have ever had and then waited for the apartment hotel reception to open to get our luggage in our room. It was so hot to walk with the bags that we just found a place nearby the hotel with a shadow and sat down for an hour. After a shower and cooling down in the air-conditioned room it was much better to continue discovering the lovely town. It was so small that we almost walked around it already on the first evening.

On our only full day in Avignon we wanted to get inside the one huge building the small town has inside it: Palais des Papes (Palace of the Popes) that had all the towns tourists on its square. I was quite surprised that even during this pandemic time it had attracted so many people there. They offered free iPads the visitors could use to get information of each room and sometimes for them to see what the room looked like during the times when Popes stayed at Avignon.

Having a lunch right in front of the Palais des Papes was a completely different experience from our lunch on the previous day. We felt like the waiters had no plans who takes care of what area and we had to wait super long both for ordering and for waiting for the dishes. And additionally the food wasn't to our taste. Both the ceasar salad and the lasagna were quite tasteless even though they looked good. We also checked Pont d'Avignon, an bridge that had lost half of it within time, and a big ferris wheel right next to the river offering us nice view to every direction and to some of the towns illuminations that we saw more on our way back to the hotel.

The city of Marseille

On the following afternoon we took a train from Avignon to the sea, to Marseille. We used the remaining few hours of the day by cooling down at the hotel (it was over 30 degrees as it had been in Avignon, as well) and walking around the city, watching its beach and its harbor. The city was hillier than Paris and had its own atmosphere because of the sea but some streets reminded us a lot of Paris.

Hiking at Parc national des Calanques

On the next day we took a bus in the morning to go to the national park located 10 km South from the centre of Marseille. The bus was mostly filled by tourists wearing sports clothes in order to take the hiking rails in the mountainous park that we had planned to take. We walked for about 4 km, first uphills until we saw the ocean and then we took a path downhills to the most beautiful swimming place either of us had ever been to. The clear turquoise water between the light colored hills and green trees had attracted many other hikers there as well even though there was no proper beach there. The downsides of the place were the difficulty of descending to the water and the pebble bottom of the tiny beach and the water. Having no sand made sure the water was so unbelievably clear I could see my feet all the time. 

Also on our last full day we left towards South-East from the main Marseille. We traveled early in the morning to another coastal town called La Ciotat which offers lots of possibilities to rent a kayak, a sup-board or such. We rented kayaks for half a day and headed off to a small island nearby the main land. Luckily the kayak was quite stable so I didn't have to worry about it tilting over but I did worry for how my arms could do the whole way to the island and back and if my sea sickness would make it impossible. I really started to feel uncomfortable in the waves half way to our destination. The waves were not even big but the constant up and down movement surprised my stomach nevertheless.

Anyhow, we finally made it to the island and parked our kayaks on its shore. It felt so good to stand on a land and let my bad feeling to fade away. We climbed up the see the view from the top of the island and wondered the amazing-colored sea from the heights as we had done already on the kayaks. It was as wonderful as we had seen in Calanques on the previous day.

Kayaking back to the mainland took almost an hour and my bad feeling suddenly hit me half way again, this time up to the point I got the vomiting reflex. Luckily I had not eaten anything after breakfast (and it started to be hours since that), so nothing came up, and after three times I was sure I would get something up, my sea sickness disappeared. After a good lunch we wanted to enjoy our afternoon on the beach. Lying on the sandy beach would have been great if the temperature wasn't reaching over 30 degrees again. We had to take a swim constantly to cool our bodies down but even with that we gave up rather fast and took a bus back to Marseille.

Our vacation offered very nice experiences and was also a great variation to the city life. We realized that travelling small distances was much more tourist friendly and cheaper than in Paris. Paris only offers one-day tickets or until-the-next-Sunday tickets which costs over 20 euros. We were lucky to spend 3 days in Marseille because they offered 72-hour tickets for 10 euros and that covered also our way to Calaques and back. While traveling in the public transport though, we also paid attention to the people who didn't wear a mask or who left it under their chin if they happened to have one with them. That was more common in Marseille than in Paris even though it is mandatory everywhere in France now. Seemingly even having a risk of getting a fine of 135 euros doesn't get the ignorant people to follow the rules. And what it comes to following rules, we also noticed that some parts of Marseille were completely covered up in graffiti. H wondered out loud if it is because the city didn't seem to have much for the youngsters to do or proper places for them to hang around. It could be. If I could choose between living around Paris or around Marseille, I would need some time to think. They both have their own specific good sides. The best thing about Marseille would be being close to the sea and the nature more, but I think Paris offers better chances for going out for a culture or a restaurant (since I don't fancy sea food, haha).