My Options

So I had written another post but it was deleted in my internet disruption and cancellation. I guess internet is on my to do list, but Border's and Barnes and Nobel will have to do.

I feel like everyone has that one person who they can go to in order to discuss the topic at hand. In the case of this France mid-hap shenanigans, my person is Vicki. I am not quite sure how she is able to sit and listen to me talk for hours on end and try to come up with different methods of staying in France and my options, but she does it about once a week and for the I am grateful beyond belief.

She brought up to me that if I was afraid to stay in France (or the EU) for more than three months I had two options: 1) leave the EU and travel to those places that I had spoken of before 2) go home. In three months time, isn't that enough to get everything out of it that I want...is it?

I am not sure that I can say in three months (two traveling out of France) that I will get my fill of France. I mean I do not want to be a nomad just wandering, I want to be within a culture. I want to understand that "a meal without cheese is like a beautiful woman without an eye." I want to say that I have lived in France and not just taken a trip there.

I could go there, come home for three months and then return. That works. I could even spend a couple of weeks out of the EU while my first visit, so that I can still meet my friend and cousin in London for Thanksgiving. If I do not stay for the 9 months, I could spend more money on food and better places to live. The living will take away from meeting people but I am sure I will be able to meet these people on the streets and at the cafes.

If I decide to do this, I must make sure that I get my time in Provence! Without this, my whole time will be lost!! If I get a place there for one of the last months, it will be cold and the Mistral will be knocking at my door. I am not sure that I can handle that. Perhaps I will push my time in Provence to the very very end of my trip, before those dreadful tourists come...