My family came to visit me! They decided to use the fact that I am in France as an excuse to take a trip to Europe. I fully supported the idea. I met them in Paris on a Friday and we spent four days there (shoutout to the director of the program for allowing me to miss two days of class) before bringing them to Nantes for the rest of the week. It was strange seeing them after a few months apart; it was like having my two separate lives overlap.
I did not anticipate the fact that everyone in restaurants or museums would speak to us in English since they heard us speaking English, so that came as a surprise to me. I wanted to speak French with them so we would often end up having a conversation in both languages, me speaking in French and them speaking in English. My family members all have at least some French background so they eventually started ordering food in French; they did a great job!
I am always amazed at how big Paris is. I think there will always be things I haven’t seen there, even after visiting a dozen times. Before I left, my host mom gave me a list of some of her favorite spots in Paris and we looked through some books she has about it. She absolutely adores Paris and her recommendations were very welcome. We managed to fit a lot in, including many things I have never seen before.
It is such a different experience traveling with family instead of friends. Traveling with five people is definitely more difficult than just two because everyone has different interests and different things they want to see so it’s difficult to accommodate everyone. I ended up being the tour guide since I speak French and have been to Paris a few times before. I was surprised that I was able to plan and navigate without many issues. And it was definitely nice to not have to worry about budgeting!
