Adventures in France: Toulouse and Montpellier

After the wedding brunch on sunday, we started the next part of our adventure: heading towards south of France. the first stop was Toulouse. Unfortunately, the weather was a little colder and it as raining all the time. We tried to walk a little in the center, but almost everything was closed in the afternoon and no people around. This is how week-ends look in some european countries; people know how to rest and take a break from work and everyday life.

Toulouse

Kids were a little tired from the long drives, so we decided to drop our stuff in a budget hotel and take a walk in downtown Toulouse, place de Capitole.

Adventures in France: Les Maritimes, La Rochelle and l'Atlantique

After a 5 hour drive, we finally reached La Rochelle and the Atlantic shore of France. On the way, we were greeted by a beautiful scenery, well maintained green lands, old and unique houses(some castles).

When you travel with kids, you discover things that you wouldn't see otherwise, like the cloud sculptures, the imaginary wolfs hidden behind the trees, the magic of bridges and many more. 

The Charentes region, on the west coast of France has amazing sceneries of vast green and golden prairies, historical castles and sandy beaches. 

Adventures in Paris: Day two

Today was Euro-Disney day!

Although I don't like the place and the whole concept of Disney, I made an extra effort to make the journey, since the kids were so excited about it.
The good thing was that we had beautiful weather and we walked a lot.

Euro-Disney had all the capitalist lures possible targeting both parents and kids. The rides were not that exceptional, i would say but average, some even boring. The kids were having fun, since there was a lot to discover, like the train ride, the doll house and Alice in Wonderland Labyrinth. Everywhere we could see little girls dressed in princesses walking(although not practical at all to go on the rides) and little boys dressed in peter pan and pirates...AAAh! Real propaganda going on:)

Adventures in Paris: Day one

Yes, finally we are taking that long-awaited family vacation with the whole bunch.

Paris is the first destination! Lots of planning needed when you are travelling with a 3, 9, 11 and a 13 year old, to keep everyone almost satisfied. The flight Yerevan-Paris was great. Kids slept most of the time and my 3yr old was so mesmerised with the whole plane flying thing that he was stuck on the little window almost the whole time, with a series of questions: "why is this not faster? i see clouds dropped on earth, what if fire comes out of the wings, why is the black sea, blue?" and many more.

Some of us will die on this land

I know it’s depressing to talk about death, loss and bereavement but some recent events made me think more and more about this topic.

Sose and Allen

A couple of months ago, the sudden death of a young repat couple, Sosé and Allen shook the whole repat community in Armenia. The funny thing is that for most of us who move to Armenia, we mostly think of how to make it here, how to find a job, build a home, find our place. We rarely reflect on how we will die here on this land. I know that this can be a depressing topic for some but I wanted to share it anyways, since it’s been haunting me for the past months. I think being a mom of four kids is adding also on the stress of thinking on these issues.

You can climb Ararat 

A couple of years ago, when Levon, a middle-aged repat passed away alone of a heart attack in his apartment while his family was in the US, I started thinking of different scenarios of what I would do if I was faced with such a tragedy. How do you deal with these issues in a new country?  How do you think and keep sane when you don’t have immediate family close by? One day, I asked a repat friend where he wanted to get buried if he died in Armenia? He looked at me shocked and started panicking. First he said “here, on this land”, then he wasn’t so sure. He thought of his family there. He felt that he belonged there as well. Then, of course he changed the topic. Who wants to talk about death when you came on this land to live with so many hopes and plans, right?

Each culture has its own way of expressing and dealing with grief and mourning. Armenia, in this area, is still very much influenced by former Soviet Union customs and traditions: meaning every single detail is dealt in the family not in funeral homes (as we know it in the west).