Wed:16.Oct.19 Pantin.fr

Internet at home! It took almost two months and countless back and forth to get a fiber optic landline connection in our all new appartment. First Free, in vain, then Sosh. Both let us hang a fair bit, but it's finally done; Just like my trial period at Deezer, done and over; And like the marathon, done and over (hey, it indeed took me a long time to recover and write home about it on my favourite blog, but I am alive, in one piece, and short (walked over an hour through Berlin after an all-legs cramp attack on kilometre 37); And the choice of my new racer, the Silberpfeil from Focus (heartfelt thanks to Oma Hochheim); And the black and white bathroom tiles for Maupertuis: chosen, ordered and now picked up; And the kick-off of the greenification of our apartment, the last steps to make this place a home; The only missing thing now are Max's first school holidays that will start next week, and which will continue to return in neat intervalls of two weeks after every six weeks of school. Hail to the system, down with the system!

Sat:28.Sep.19 Berlin.de

Spent a great long day laughing with Nicoko, Julien, Sebastian in Berlin—waiting for the D day tomorrow. Rain will be in the air, and it’s going to be tough. But everything is ready for my first and probably last marathon. We roamed through town with Coup’s fun e-scooters, at up to 53 km/h. Fetched the bip at Tempelhof, strolled through Kreuzberg along the Landwehrkanal, had coffee in fancy places and met Bettie with baby Jake. I hope to report back alive, in one piece, tomorrow. Let’s get this done!

Tue:24.Sep.19 Paris.fr

Happy birthday myself! Not much to write home about these days, routine isn't back yet—but almost. Busy days at work due to our quarterly lifecycles, and the upcoming marathon (hooray, return to Berlin after sooo many years). Still no internet in Pantin, but at least we moved back all our stuff from Maupertuis. Summer's gone, everything else is still here. Good!

Tue:03.Sep.19 Paris.fr

Summer is gone, on August's last day on Saturday we were still canoeing and swimming in the Yonne, the next day it was cold and gray and 10 degrees colder. Back to the capital, back to the canal, back to school (for Max). The little boy now tackled his third school in three years, and doing great. Now back to routine, with an apartment that's ever more complete (also thanks to our overseas pallet, that made its way from Pittsburgh to Pantin in about 8 weeks).

Wed:14.Aug.19 Pantin.fr

New apartment, new city, new departement. We are now living in Pantin, right on the Canal de l'Ourq and not very far from the Périphérique and Paris. A fancy, brand-new apartment in the infamous 93, in the north-east of Paris right next to my former ultimate and triathlon club's home towns. Well-known territory. We pay 1 650 € for a decent 65 m² fourth floor apartment with two large balconies. We now only need to recover a decent security deposit from some crazy, law-ignoring lady, who almost became our landlord for another apartment, from which we pulled out last second. Paris is a crazy place to rent, tons of laws and even more law-bending and even law-breaking practice is required to get hold of a place here, highly unhealthy. Not to say toxic. And definitely no good.