France

 As I write these words, I am sitting on the couch of a 5th floor apartment in Nantes, France.

I do love traveling, though doing so with kids is a challenge.

For starters, I have to find food they will eat, which is hard enough to do in out own country.

They also aren't so interested in some of the awesome museums and churches to visit, or in walking around (which, at the moment, is the way we are getting around).

But there are some pleasant surprises here.

First, though I did expect to find lots of people who speak English, even those who claim they don't can speak enough English to communicate. Lots of signs and menus are in both French and English. When I enter an establishment where someone doesn't speak English, they almost immediately direct me to their coworker who does.

Second, we showed up at an interesting time. There was a "dog race" between two giant, mechanical dogs that pulled in a huge amount of people. It was interesting. There's also a carnival next door to our apartment for the next week, which, of course, the kids want to go to and remind me of this constantly.

Sadly, the Cathedral is closed until 2024 or 2025 because someone started a fire in it back in 2020. :(

I was not expecting most places to be closed on Monday. I understand why many places advertise being open 7 days a week. They also have odd hours, often opening at 1 or even 4. 

So far, I've been able to use Apple Pay pretty much everywhere. I doubt it will work at the carnival, though.

I'll update more later.