It’s a late-August Tuesday but it feels like an early-June Friday. The city is going wild because we were gifted extra summer weather and everybody knows it won’t last—it never does, fall weather is right around the corner, so all responsible and knowledgeable adults are currently hanging out outside and making the most of it (… and I’m typing this at 1 a.m.!)

It won’t last, and we won’t stay.

This is our last week in France and I’m conflicted—I’m sad but I want to enjoy it, so I can’t be too sad, or else it spoils everything.

The thing is, Mark is sad too. Sadder, maybe, and I don’t know how to help because he has never not wanted to leave. This is the kid who, at four or five, was screaming on Copacabana Beach “I want to go back to Canada!” even after we assured him it was very cold in Canada in February and there was no beach around (then I found out that my in-laws were begging him to come back over the phone, bribing him with late Christmas presents…).

Then after he understood geography, seasons, and other life stuff, he was like Feng—stoic. Sure, he always feels sad when he gives away his bodyboard in Brazil or says goodbye to my relatives but he isn’t overly emotional. I’m the one who has a hard time with endings and leaving people. And of course, I’ve been the one who doesn’t really want to go back to Canada for the past decade or so.

“I don’t want to leave France,” Mark muttered with tears in his eyes after I asked what was wrong about twenty times in a row because sometimes, “nothing” isn’t an acceptable answer.

“But you have friends in Canada! You like going to school!”

“September is okay as long as I can go to the park. October is okay-ish, there’s my birthday. Then November is grey and cold, and it feels so lonely… winter never ends, it’s dark, it’s cold, I can’t do anything, THERE’S NOBODY AROUND! FOR MONTHS!”

“I KNOW! I mean… it’s not that bad.”

Honestly, it is. I mean, for me, it is, and to a certain extent, for Mark, it is, too.

Mark can handle cold weather and is happy to stay home and watch TV or play on his tablet. But like me, he likes busy streets, social interactions, and going places. He likes the food in France. He likes his newfound freedom, wandering around and interacting with people. Suburbia, Canada is way too quiet, too orderly and too sterile. Oh, it’s safe. But it’s also fucking boring.

I don’t want to come back either. I said it out loud many, many times but for once, I kept quiet.

“Let’s go to the beach,” I offered. “It’s gonna be hot and sunny. You can play football on the beach!”

And so we went to Saint-Gilles on Monday and to Les Sables d’Olonne today, doing what we always do—climb on the lighthouse wall, turn over rocks to find pet crabs, jump over puddles of seawater, and eat decadent chocolate crêpes.

Prom. Marie de Beaucaire, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
Prom. Marie de Beaucaire, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
Prom. Marie de Beaucaire, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
Prom. Marie de Beaucaire, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
Prom. Marie de Beaucaire, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
Prom. Marie de Beaucaire, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
Prom. Marie de Beaucaire, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
Prom. Marie de Beaucaire, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
Phare de la Garenne, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
Phare de la Garenne, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
Phare de la Garenne, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
Phare de la Garenne, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
Phare de la Garenne, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
Phare de la Garenne, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
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Phare de la Garenne, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
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Phare de la Garenne, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
Phare de la Garenne, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
Phare de la Garenne, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
Phare de la Garenne, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
Phare de la Garenne, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
Phare de la Garenne, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
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Phare de la Garenne, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
Phare de la Garenne, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
Phare de la Garenne, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
Phare de la Garenne, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
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Phare de la Garenne, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
Phare de la Garenne, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
Phare de la Garenne, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
Phare de la Garenne, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
Phare de la Garenne, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
Phare de la Garenne, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
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Phare de la Garenne, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
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Phare de la Garenne, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
Phare de la Garenne, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
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Phare de la Garenne, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
Grande Plage, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
Grande Plage, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
Grande Plage, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
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Grande Plage, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
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Grande Plage, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
Grande Plage, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
Grande Plage, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
Grande Plage, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
Grande Plage, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
Grande Plage, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
Grande Plage, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
Grande Plage, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
Grande Plage, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
Grande Plage, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
Grande Plage, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
Grande Plage, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
Grande Plage, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
Grande Plage, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
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Grande Plage, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
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Grande Plage, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
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Grande Plage, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
Grande Plage, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
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Grande Plage, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie
Grande Plage, 85800 Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie

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2 Comments

  1. Martin Penwald August 30, 2024 at 7:01 am

    Il se débrouille comment en français ?
    Parce qu’il pourrait envisager de faire des études universitaires en France, ’faudrait voit comment ça marche.

    Reply
    1. Zhu August 30, 2024 at 7:35 pm

      Oui, techniquement, il pourrait vu qu’il a la nationalité française. À lui de décider plus tard… IL se débrouille bien en français, mais pas assez pour le collège ou le lycée, c’est sûr (c’est pas une option de toute façon).

      Reply

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