The end

We took two days to drive back to our starting point. We spent a long while cleaning out the camping car and packing all of our things up. We didn't do any sight-seeing except stopping at a quick viewpoint to see an old walled city called Carcassonne. You know you are worn out when you don't feel like stopping to explore such a cool place!

We returned the camping car to the very nice family who let us use it, then rented a car to get to Nice where we stayed our last day and a half in a resort hotel on the beach. After nearly three weeks camping we enjoyed a little bit of luxury...you know, a warm shower and a level bed!!! We spent the morning before departure doing a final pack which was quite an ordeal. We each had two suitcases and two maximum-sized carry-ons, each 50 pound exactly (thank goodness the hotel had a bathroom scale!) We spent the afternoon at the beach side pool feeling this strange feeling like we had already left our French experience behind when we left Menton nearly three weeks before, yet we were still there in familiar surroundings - the sea, the mountains, the smell of fresh pastries, the language, and that glorious sun. I was grateful for the transitional camping car trip. It saved me from what would have been an instant nostalgia.

We woke up at dawn to go to the airport. We all went on the balcony of our hotel room and looked out at the sea. As a family we said a very sincere prayer of gratitude for an unbelievably unbelievable year. The adventure of travel, the overwhelming intake of information from Roman architecture to how to ask for a quarter kilo of fresh pasta at the market, the relaxing and spectacular beauty of our surroundings, the challenges that we overcame personally and together, and the unity and love we developed over our year apart in France. As we concluded we paused briefly and there they were, the songbirds that greeted us every single morning in Menton. We had forgotten about them in the camping car, but there they were outside our hotel room singing their beautiful and familiar song. It was as if God himself was looking down at us with a smile saying, "You're welcome."