This past July we were able to leave Oregon for a three-month stay in France, and in the fall there our children attended a public school in Lyon. Throughout our stay we were so grateful to be able to be in France at all. I had been checking airfare prices for more than a year prior to our trip, but the French borders remained closed to Americans until early June of 2021. When the borders were opened at last, we decided to seize the opportunity to visit, and even though Covid and the pass sanitaire made life more complicated in France, I’m so glad we were there anyhow.

Rental housing in Lyon was a bit more difficult to find this time—not simply because our stay was planned at the last minute once the borders re-opened, but because many short term rental apartments have been converted to annual contracts since the Covid shutdowns of 2020 eliminated most of the tourist market. However, I was able to find a three-bedroom apartment through Airbnb, and then I negotiated a lower price for our stay through All In Lyon, the apartment's management company. Although the initial cleaning was sloppy and the apartment lacked basics like toilet paper when we arrived, the apartment itself was beautiful with its high wood-beamed ceilings, a sunny south-facing kitchen, and a terrific view over the rooftops of the Renaissance neighborhood known as Vieux Lyon. (I posted a video of the amazing view on the Intentional Mama Facebook page.) The duplex layout (with 3 bedrooms upstairs) was also a relief, particularly after the challenges of our cramped stay in a studio apartment in Lyon three years ago.

*My three-year-old son and I on a* vaporetto boat near St. Jean Cathedral, Lyon

Our kids did terrific in their public schools. I am proud of them for adapting so well. I'll tell you more about their schools in a moment, but I can tell you about the Covid adaptations now. My children did have to wear masks in school, except for my preschooler, but they could take them off at lunch and recess. The school wasn't particular about which kind of masks; their only request was that elementary students have a new mask ready to put on after their lunch break. The school was also consistent in having students wash their hands after they arrived each day. Despite the handwashing and the masks, however, my children still caught two different fevers and a Norovirus during the six brief weeks that they were in school. I was surprised that we were sick so often during this stay when normally we are rarely sick at all, with the exception of a few colds each year. As my husband says, though, “Viruses are gonna virus”—they seem to spread regardless of any countermeasures put in place, as we’ve seen all too much during these Covid times.

*Taking a spin on one of Lyon’s carousels on a weekend afternoon*

During our past séjours in Lyon (staying there twice in the previous six years), we tried to visit all the local museums and parks and to experience all of the cultural activities that we could manage. However, with Covid ever present during this stay, the pass sanitaire had just been mandated by the French government. Now changed into a strict vaccine passport, this digital verification requirement prevents youth (ages 12 and up) and adults without evidence of a current Covid booster (within the past four months) from entering libraries, cafés, restaurants, and other venues (or even from sitting at outdoor café tables!). I did see many public alterations over this, particularly during the first week that it went into effect, and there were massive protests in France’s major cities—including Lyon—every weekend (with riot police shooting rubber bullets, which was alarming!), but the one upside was that it helped us focus on relationships during our stay since we weren’t allowed access to many of the cultural activities that might have taken our time otherwise. (I support the individual's right to make his or her own medical choices.) So instead of seeking out lots of cultural activities and experiences, we shared tea times, conversations, and meals with old and new French friends, and I am so grateful for those meaningful moments of camaraderie. Even my former French host family who hosted me during a college year abroad made the hour-long drive to come share a weekend lunch with us, and it was such a treat for me to be able to host them for a meal after all the kindnesses they extended to me years ago.

*Fourvière hill and* la Tour Métallique (Lyon's own "Eiffel Tower”)

Looking back, I am especially proud of my daughter's healthy adaptation to new responsibilities during this stay since it was her first time attending middle school in France. She rapidly learned how to take public transport to school (with a friend's parent and a friend at first, but sometimes alone). She managed to keep up with her ever-changing schedule. It was much like a college schedule, with each day's class hours being different from the next, and with frequent class cancellations due to teacher absences. She was in class from 8am until just after 5pm most days, except for some Friday mornings when she got to start three hours late. (Her friends were jealous of these Friday breaks since it's rare to have such gaps in the daily schedule!) She was required to take daily English classes like her French classmates, unfortunately, but she also got to take German and Latin as electives. (I was so happy that she could take these language classes, and she enjoyed them too!) She made new friends, refreshed old friendships, and earned excellent grades, so I'm still proud that she flourished so well in this shift to French public middle school.

*Our oldest daughter and our preschooler in the streets of Vieux Lyon*

Her younger brothers flourished as well. My oldest son (in CM1, the equivalent of 4th grade) initially struggled with the writing and the weekly dictation work (though I had tried to prepare him!), but once he figured out the pattern of how to approach it (first copying the dictation from a text in class, then practicing writing it by ear on the weekend, testing on Monday, and then noting his corrections), he quickly improved. I think he also appreciated having a male teacher, and particularly one who was both observant and laid-back.

*My nine-year-old working on a drawing in our Lyon apartment*

My first grader didn’t particularly enjoy school during the first few days; the school days seemed terribly long because he was previously accustomed to homeschooling only until lunch. Here in Lyon his school days lasted from 8:20am until 4:45pm, but they did include a two-hour lunch break. Twice per week I walked back to school and picked up him and his preschool-age brother to have lunch at home so the days didn’t feel so long to them. Interestingly though, I think my first grade son is the one who misses French school the most now. He misses his teacher and the fun of the classroom environment, I think. Our homeschool provides more freedom, but the public school classroom gave him a daily social setting that we get less often back in Oregon.

One of the main changes during this stay was how I shopped for groceries. I used the open-air market much less than I have in past stays, for several reasons. Mainly, this time I had four children who needed meals, an eight-month-old baby who needed to be carried much of the time, and all of our groceries had to be toted up the spiral staircase to our fourth-floor apartment. When in France I plan French-style meals, which means multiple courses for lunch and dinner. With all of this, I simply found that it was easier to use grocery delivery services when possible, and to order a weekly delivery from a local CSA-type business, Potager City, that provides fruits and vegetables directly from local producers to a nearby location. My French grocery delivery experiences turned out to be unreliable and fairly humorous when compared with my American grocery deliveries, so I’ll share about those experiences in another post soon.

*The baby, learning to eat solid foods at eight months old in Lyon*

One highlight of this trip was that my American sister-in-law and her husband came to visit us for a week. I really enjoyed seeing Lyon through their eyes, and they delighted in seeing the habits of our daily lives in Lyon. They had a wonderful stay and it means a lot to me now that we can share mutual memories of a city that’s so dear to my heart. I was also so impressed at how she and her husband adapted so quickly and to the time differences and cultural changes. Traveling with others puts relationships under a lot of pressure and stress, so it’s a relief and a joy to discover that your family members adapt well to a foreign climate—and love that same place like you do.

La Tour Rose— an often-admired tower in Renaissance Lyon

My children and I arrived back in Portland, Oregon, just as the deciduous trees were at their peak of fall color and with plenty of pumpkins waiting to be harvested in our back field. It was lovely to be back, and it was especially meaningful to be reunited with my husband, who had returned to his work as a teacher in the US seven weeks prior.

*Harvesting pumpkins with the neighbors in our backyard garden*

Still, I think we all felt some grief at having to let go of life in Lyon again. I miss walking my boys to school through Renaissance-era cobblestone streets, exploring the central city each day on errands, encountering friends on a daily basis, attending the small Protestant church that I have known since my college year abroad—all of these experiences made our daily life in Lyon so rich. Our days there were more academically challenging and more mentally exhausting than our homeschooling days here, but our focus was clear. We were there on a mission to invest in relationships, to develop our French, and to learn alongside new and old friends. I have a similar focus here in Oregon too. My husband and I enjoy hosting a weekly dinner and Bible study in our home. I've returned to teaching weekly classes at our homeschool co-op and at a local pregnancy resource center. Still, I pray that God will call us back to Lyon sooner than our last three-year span away, and we hope this next time our family will be able to stay there for quite some time.

*Dusk on the Saone River in Lyon, France*

Where has your heart been calling you? Where are you learning to live despite a longing to be elsewhere, or doing something different? How are you learning to bloom where you’re planted?