France:Day 3

It rained today. It rained a lot.

Driving in France frightens us. It frightens us a lot.

So what was today's plan? To drive through the pouring, sheeting, occasionally-causing-hydroplaning rain, from Aix to Manosque, of course! We need to find somewhere to live, after all, and there were apartments to be seen. (Mom, I know you're reading this. We didn't hydroplane. Someone else did. She missed us. Nobody was injured.)

Some lessons and stories from today will get their own posts, but since we're already talking driving, let's just take care of this one right here.

I think we're finally getting the hang of driving here. Still going to be glad to be rid of the rental car but it's not heart-attack inducing anymore. Roundabouts, which were so foreign to us, are fairly simple once you hammer home one simple rule:

The person in the roundabout has the right of way.

Ta-da!

So we're in Manosque. We have an apartment to see at 10 am and at 6 pm. We filled the in-between time with lunch, sightseeing, and asking questions about this and that.

Turns out if we wanted the Li'l Monkey to get into the International School, we had to register back in April. (And to register would have required proof of address... back in April!)

It also turns out that kids can start going to French school as young as 2 if they're potty trained and considered “psychologically ready” at their assessment (apparently there's an assessment) so Monkey might be a couple years behind in school even though he's not yet 4.

Oh look, wine.

...

In all seriousness, Manosque was absolutely beautiful and we'd picked our apartment before the day was over. We managed to avoid getting drenched by the rain, enjoyed the cooler day, had an amazing pizza lunch, and I'm sure everything will work out in the end.

Left: Eggplant, bell pepper, and zucchini with cheese
Right: Classic margherita pizza

At some point, this gent had parked next to us and set up a
small table to sell these beautiful cherries.
We bought some just before heading back.