We have so much to be thankful for, living in the lovely Loire Valley in France. We count our blessings in all of these areas:

• COMMUNITY: We’ve made some great friends here, some American and some French. We feel supported and that we have people to do fun things with like attending cultural events, sharing delicious meals, riding bikes and taking walks, and learning together.
• FOOD: We’re figuring out how to cook here with inspiration from our favorite meals in the U.S. and with the inclusion of similar, but different French ingredients. The cheese, bread, and wine add to the meals and the fresh produce can’t be beat.
• HEALTH: We’ve both got our French health insurance now, are vaccinated which makes riding public transportation less scary, and we remain healthy and well. Greg’s biking with friends or with his bike club group when the weather allows and I’m taking group exercise classes, and we’re both doing it in French. We walk a lot too.
• EDUCATION: We’re at the half-way point with this French language class, though this week was the hardest yet in terms of nuanced language rules around sentence structure with adjectives, adverbs, and comparatives and superlatives. I think everyone in that class wanted to cry at least once last night. We’re making progress in our driving education as well.
• CULTURE: We’ve attended a couple of events at the local community center recently. The photo above is an all-age military band who put on a great concert for the crowd. There are many things happening at the English language library, including a Thanksgiving potluck Thursday night for the American crowd. We’re bringing pecan pie and candied yams with marshmallows (Greg ventured out into the cold and found some today, which was an accomplishment as they are not common here).
• PURPOSE: We feel so fortunate to have had a community here to support us as we landed. We’ve now met up with a number of people who are scouting Angers as their future home and we’ve offered up our experiences. I’m also getting involved with the fundraising and planning work of the English-language library to ensure it can continue to remain a community hub for English speakers in Angers, and Greg may be tapped to help them with technology needs.

Though we are missing our friends and family in the U.S., we hope that each of you are able to share time, meals, and traditions this week with those you love. Life (and families) are what you make them. We count each of you as part of ours and are thankful for your continued friendship and support.

When in doubt about how to live a good life, think about how the French do it — share time and great meals together, add wine and great bread, never skip the cheese course or dessert, and don’t take things too seriously. With patience and time, it will all work out.

Happy Thanksgiving!

P.S. Check out the cutest UPS truck ever. This is the solution for when you need to deliver packages in an ancient downtown with tiny cobblestone streets in some areas! The post office uses e-bikes with large bins and even pallet bikes for larger packages.