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Away We Go We Go follows the journey of Sophie & Jordan Epton, an American couple who moved to France with their 10-month old twins, and the crazy adventure that follows. We dive deep into what it's really like moving and living abroad as expats, interview others who have taken the road less traveled, provide travel tips, discuss how you can do hard things to change your own life, and everything in between.
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[00:00:00]
Sophie: Hello and welcome back to The Away we Go. We go podcast.
Jordan: Welcome. That
Sophie: was
Jordan: fucking back. You know what Apropo, dude, it's like, I know. This is like, I know where we've been at for the last 20 to 30 days. Man, shit,
Sophie: it feels so good to be back. Um, does feel good to
Jordan: be back.
Sophie: [00:01:00] But trust me, we did not expect to be gone this long.
Uh, that's true. We obviously were, we were always planning to take off Christmas and New Year's, like we do have a life. We have it with the twins. They were off for 17 days. They were
Jordan: off for 17 days. Not off, they were home. Home. Or 17 days straight off. Because, just real quick, 'cause I, it, this was like a weird year.
Like they got out Christmas was on a Thursday. They got out 'cause the school took off that whole week, but they ended up getting out the Thursday before. So they're home the 18th. Mm-hmm. And then when you pass New Year's, the second was Friday. Obviously not gonna go back for one day. So it wasn't until the fifth, like that's a fucking stretch, dude.
Damn.
Sophie: Yeah, so, so kids, kids were off and then. I got hit with the plague so hard. I'm still recovering. I'm still a [00:02:00] little stuffed up. I still have a little bit of a cough. I still have a little bit of crackle on the ears. Well,
Jordan: yout get flu, which is good. We'll
Sophie: get, yeah, we'll, we'll get into it, but just happy to be back.
Happy to be feeling almost normal again. But I just couldn't even talk last week. So we made the executive decision to
Jordan: just to, uh. Save you all from yet another Jordan solo episode.
Sophie: We wanted to start the year strong with both of us, so here we are. Just because
Jordan: you can doesn't mean you should.
Sophie: So I hope everyone has had a fabulous start to 2026.
Happy New Year. The year of the fire horse. As we all know, I think there's gonna be a lot of. Craziness and moving and shaking in all the best ways this year. And I'm excited to watch it all unfold for sure. But we thought it'd be kind of fun this episode just to like start off the year doing a little recap and then [00:03:00] next week we'll kind of get a little bit more into, you know, just what, what the year looks like and just some fun things about winter and provenance and, and all the things.
But we've just been gone so long we felt like. We owed you a little, a little story time today. So little
Jordan: catch up.
Sophie: Little catch up. So, you know, I know that a lot of the episodes that we did towards the end of the year, were talking about Christmas in Provence, which is like truly magical and we definitely felt that way.
I think leading up to it like the kids had. For the first time ever, they had the cutest little, it was like a little recital.
Jordan: Yeah, it was, it is their, you know, the, what do they call, like the winter program or winter program, something or other, but
Sophie: so, so it was, it was great to like, you know, have all of December, which felt really festive and sort of a cap it off.
Like they, they sang red red coat and a red red hat. In front of [00:04:00] everyone. We ended up buying a gingerbread house from their school to kind of like kick off the whole holidays, which thank God we did because of course, like the first week it was raining the entire week, like through Christmas. So we had to do lots of indoor activities.
So we were doing everything from making cookies and just trying to not go insane, making the gingerbread house. Sophie,
Jordan: Sophie definitely has noticed that we should find a way to always buy double of whatever we're doing. Like if it's a gingerbread house, if it's an extra like secret set of Play-Doh so that you know, when we're trying to work hard to create something fun and the twins come in and like slam their paws into it because you know, you get four tiny paws just like.
Grabbing all over stuff. I
Sophie: don't, I don't mind that they're a little pause right now. No, I know, but I just, I mind that they mix. You love creating
Jordan: [00:05:00] and you're like, I want my own gingerbread house.
Sophie: Well, oh well that's, yeah, that's true. I did want my, I want own Play-Doh
Jordan: because
Sophie: Yeah, they tiny. I my own want my own
Jordan: hands coming in.
They're like, Ooh, what are you making? And they grab it and they smash it and. It was,
Sophie: it was a lesson in, in patience and trying to not keep a lot of that control freak.
Jordan: Yeah. It was funny with my own
Sophie: kids. I know you just laugh at me, but, but it was, yeah, it was, it was really, I felt like this was the first year where we kind of had quite a bit of time to slow down because the last two years.
Before that, I've always been sick over Christmas and so this was the first time I felt good over Christmas. And so I felt like I really like, enjoyed and we, we soaked everything up and we were, you know, listening to music and doing all these cute things. And then we would, you know, we were, we're going outside and buying like, I mean the thing about Provence is that sugar is everything during [00:06:00] December.
It's everything. And it's also like. You're just like, fuck my life. Because
Jordan: it's impossible to avoid.
Sophie: It's impossible to avoid. It's impossible
Jordan: to want to avoid, but it's,
Sophie: but it's, it's beautiful though. Yeah. Because it's, I mean, every single shop is going to have like, you know, beautiful like chocolates in the windows and all these like, great displays.
And they're
Jordan: giving samples.
Sophie: Yes, they're giving samples. Pull you in
Jordan: there. I am. Powerless.
Sophie: Yeah. And, and there's, you know, there's cookies and there's cakes and so of course like one of the things we did is we got the Bush Noel, which I know we had talked about. So we got like a chocolate one and then kind of like a passion fruit one, which was crazy and amazing.
We like put them in the freezer waiting for Christmas day. And what I'm gonna, the reason I bring this up is because I think that was the reason that I ended up getting sick. Because as we know, sugar is the devil. It is so inflammatory and all I was doing all month long [00:07:00] was eating sugar at everywhere. I could do it.
Like
Jordan: even just about it. It sounds
Sophie: so nice, but it's, it's, it's so impossible to avoid here. It's like diet culture does not exist as we know, and sugar culture is on another level, like they don't like for a snack. I always talk about this. I'm like, I do wish that they had something that was more like. You could, I don't know, like a chomps meat stick or like different cheeses or just something that like was easier for the kids is, but everyone always does like a gte, it's like they wanna do like a sugary, you know, pastry with a sugary yogurt with maybe a piece of chocolate and a piece of fruit and you're like, anyways, all that to say it was sugar fast 2025.
Jordan: Even before the Christmas break when we were doing drop offs, I remember they were rehearsing, uh, for the, their little winter program song. [00:08:00] And we only stuck around for like the, the two youngest groups of kids. 'cause they did a song together. Um, but to get them to rehearse, there was one day where, you know, we do, we always show up late, like getting these two.
Outta the house. I think a lot of people in our class don't live in the city center, so for us it's like a, what should be like a 15 minute drive. But in morning traffic is like oftentimes, depending on how late I get out, like 45 minutes. It's crazy. And so I show up when like. They're already getting settled and there was one day where all the kids were being kind of shoveled into the little cafeteria where they were practicing, and I just hear one of the teachers like, come on guys, let's go.
We'll have marshmallows and we'll have candy when we get outta here. I'm like, oh God, you guys are in full bribe mode and we haven't even started full bribe mode for when you come home [00:09:00] for this. 17 day stretch, which listen,
Sophie: you do what you gotta do, do what
Jordan: you gotta do. But that was pretty funny And, and I will say for their little, their little song, I mean, watching like the three to three and a half year olds try to do that stuff, I'm amazed at the coordination that they were able to get out of these kids.
It's true. It was pretty funny. There was literally only one kid in their class who was actually singing like cutest, happiest kid ever just belting at the top of his lungs. And like every other kid was just like sitting there. Luca was staring at all the kids to the side or behind him.
It was just really funny. But oh yeah, he got a lot of that.
Sophie: So Christmas. Was really cute. My parents came over, we opened up all the gifts with the kids, of course, between three different sets of grandparents. They got way too much and, and we made the mistake [00:10:00] of thinking that this year was gonna be the year that we'd get them a craft set.
And yeah, I, let's just say we, it was an explosion of,
Jordan: oh man,
Sophie: pompoms and pipe cleaners and paper in the house for weeks.
Jordan: Yeah, I was, it comes with clean with, with some kid scissors that London basically turned all of the paper into confetti. And as much as I tried to clean it up, I, I think I cleaned up their room four or five times a day every day and got absolutely nowhere.
In, in my head I was like, oh, they'll just have so many little craft things to play with that they'll just constantly be busy playing with that and shows how much I know about fucking toddlers wrong.
Sophie: But something that we decided to do that is different also from any other year that we were like so excited about is that I feel like, and.[00:11:00]
Tell me if you feel the same way about this, but every year I love Christmas. There's like a big buildup to it. Christmas happens and then the 26th always feels a little like w want, like it just feels like this sort of deflated balloon the next day. And I thought we should start some sort of tradition where like we have like something to do on the 26th that becomes like a, you know, just something we do every year.
And it just is something to look forward to so that it kind of like takes the edge off of Christmas ending. True. And so my
Jordan: and when you say we, you mean just we
Sophie: what do you mean? It
Jordan: would not just the, just you and I.
Sophie: Oh, not that's correct. Not all of
Jordan: us. That's correct.
Sophie: Because those kids altered
Jordan: we,
Sophie: well, look,
Jordan: I, I think, you know, obviously the, the way we were talking about it was like.
You know, this, this, everything [00:12:00] leading up to Christmas was right now it's completely for them. Like they're having so much fun. 'cause this is the first year where, I think we talked about this before, like they really understand what's going on. Like they understand the idea that like Santa is coming and there's like a tree and the gifts are gonna show up and like.
They just like understand all that. So everything leading up to Christmas was like super fun. Anticipating, you know, them getting really excited, us talking about making cookies and leaving them for Santa and it's so much fun doing that. So I think we talked about was like it's a massive, it it because Christmas is not just Christmas, right?
It is like, plus we also had Hanukkah and it was like just a week plus of like building up. That was like really intense and really fun and them like having to be patient for the gifts and us having to be patient for the gifts. So we were [00:13:00] like, let's do a little decompression session.
Sophie: Yeah, that was, that was our Christmas present.
That's great. Our wonderful friends, UNG and Donny, who Ung has been on the podcast last year because she owns the incredible Maison de f Frederic, which is that fabulous rental near ez.
She invited us to come and spend the weekend there over Christmas because she had the whole place. Decorated So cute. And it was, you know, she was like, I just want like, you know, the house to be filled with your presence. And we were like, we are there. And I, I was like,
Jordan: I don't know what we did slash aka what Sophie did for us to deserve this, but.
Man, that was like,
Sophie: well,
Jordan: such an escape.
Sophie: Make good connections with good people. You know? That's the beauty of,
Jordan: that's all you gotta do. Definitely
Sophie: a very small, tight-knit community here. You meet, you meet the right people, I think pretty, pretty quickly, but it [00:14:00] was exactly what we needed. So between my parents and our new, new, like the whole weekend was, you know.
Totally covered with the kids. Mm-hmm. I was, the ironic part was I prayed the whole like two weeks leading up, being like, I just wanna feel good. I don't wanna get sick from the kids. I just wanna have these two days with Jordan. Like, this is all I want. Right. Christmas.
Jordan: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll get through Christmas, but please, we need these nights away.
Sophie: And so it came and we were like. Footloose and fancy free. We walked out the door with our bags. We ran into our friends that own the coffee shop that were like, what are you guys doing? We're like, we are fucking out of here. Yeah. Later we are like, like, eat my dust. Like getting in the car. Yeah, we're done.
So it was to say like, obviously I've, you know, because I. Interview kung back in May of last [00:15:00] year, and I got to see the whole house, which was so fabulous. And hearing the story of, you know, just the labor of love and literal blood, sweat, and tears they put into this place, but getting to actually experience it as a guest like you guys, I'm gonna link this beautiful property again because.
It is one of the most special places we've ever stayed at and everything. Not only is it so stunning and so it was perfect for the holidays. It was so cozy and it was just like, so, it was just so amazing to have this staycation here, but. But like the owners have truly thought about, I was gonna say, is such a
Jordan: well thought out place.
Like, just like
Sophie: there's not one thing that like goes unnoticed in the whole experience. Like it was better than, like, I feel like almost any hotel I've ever stayed at, I feel like hotels always miss the marks on certain things and like it did not, yeah. I mean, I think
Jordan: that it, like the way they. [00:16:00] Have made decisions about this place, like it strikes like such a nice balance between like the amenity things that you like really want and not jeopardizing, like the feel of this like incredible.
Exactly. I don't know if that's considered proven hall. It'd be, but like this, like this, you know, Southern France home that like you just, you walk around and you're just like. Everything feels like such a good decision.
Sophie: Yeah. It's just you, you immediately feel comfortable and like ready to sort of just kick off your shoes and just sink into this place.
Jordan: Literally pull the words outta my mouth, like that's exactly how I was thinking. I'm like, we just sank in.
Sophie: Yeah, and because specifically we, when we were there, we were like. We decided, we're like, we're not gonna try. I mean, we had thought about going out a little bit and [00:17:00] I feel like the moment that our bodies passed over the threshold of this place and we like got kind of, you know, like checked in so to speak.
I turned to Jordan and I said, I don't wanna leave. I just wanna have time to just cook and watch Netflix and sleep. Yeah, and sleep. Just be here in. Just like, enjoy. And that's exactly what we did. Yeah. We got caught up on like all of the stranger things, except for like the last episode, which was so good.
You know, we just, we, I slept so hard. The beds were incredible. Or the bed, I should say, that we slept. It was incredible. Like, it just, you know, we, we had time to play games.
Jordan: No,
Sophie: when's the last time we did that? It had to have been before the kids were born. I
Jordan: mean, we've had a couple date nights here and there.
We've had the space, but like, this was like, uh, having played a game where there's like small [00:18:00] pieces. We were, I wasn't worried.
Sophie: Yeah. Oh, I know. I mean, it just, you know, and it, everything was so cute. Like the Christmas tree was up, like, you know, just everything was decorated. It just was the absolute. Best, best, best.
And you guys, I cannot recommend we pump this up enough.
Jordan: Like,
Sophie: no, but truly like it. It was, it was so incredible. I cannot recommend this enough. They do week long rentals and it's just, I just don't think there's anything quite like it. They just, everything they thought about like Kung and Donny, this place is a gem.
You should be so proud and we are so thankful to have stayed there. What was great too is we had, when we, when we very begrudgingly had had to leave after two days there, we still had a little bit of time, and one of the things that I've always wanted to do since we moved here is there's this incredible light show near this port called ri, and I will link [00:19:00] this as well, but essentially it's like this.
You know, beautiful harbor with all of these boats and they decorate each boat with like a crazy amount of Christmas lights. There's like
Jordan: string lights, but they're like big bulbs and it's like
Sophie: they're really well done.
Jordan: They're wrapped across all the boats, all the trees, tons of the buildings, like the whole little port is like this beautifully lit happening little spot.
And it was, I, I honestly. I feel like you had shown me pictures of it like two years ago.
Sophie: I did,
Jordan: and we talked about it two years ago and we didn't go, and then last year, whatever was going on, like it wasn't even in the cards. I completely forgot the photos. I know you've shown me. I I know. I mean, let's be real.
You could have shown me the photos a week before and I've been like, well, I don't know what this is, but
Sophie: yeah, you have the memory of I'm a
Jordan: goldfish man. A goldfish, I'm a goldfish. Except about like weird random shit that I remember from when I was like, 10.
Sophie: You're, you're [00:20:00] insane.
Jordan: Um, but when we were like kind of walking in, it was like, oh shit.
And then it just kept going and it was really fun.
Sophie: Yeah. 'cause not only, so, I mean you have the whole port with the boats, but then there's also like, there's just so many things going on. They have like. This kind of whole plaza that it's a
Jordan: huge promenade and closet. Yeah, totally.
Sophie: And there is, you know, like there's all these different like kind of, you know, Christmas themed things that are going on.
There was actually like, there was like a bunch of little tents where you could tell, like they were, you know, selling a lot of like, mold, wine cetera. Yeah. There was the, like it was very
Jordan: clearly the adult tent. Yeah,
Sophie: yeah. But it was, but it was popping beautiful. I mean, it, everything was just lit up and it was so festive and like.
That is just something I would say like you, you don't hear about very often. So if you are in, you know, the Provence area during Christmas, it would be really worth your time to drive down to Santa Fe now. And they do it,
Jordan: it's like all of December, I think, all of of [00:21:00] December, summer, November. And
Sophie: they actually do fireworks at New Year's over the water too.
Oh, that's
Jordan: cool.
Sophie: So I've obviously, I don't normally go out for New Year's, but I feel like that would be so good deal. Parking is kind of a bitch. Parking is a bitch. And
Jordan: you, like, we stumbled around the like, I don't know, the, like the half arch around the, like port until we could find like a side road.
Yeah. And then it's like a good, that's, that's what I, I would say like 20. Don't
Sophie: expect to park anywhere near, like, close into the, the village. Um,
Jordan: depends when you show up. What day we were there on the weekend. Sunday.
Sophie: Yeah. Right.
Jordan: So if you do a weekday, you probably have a little bit better luck.
Sophie: Oh, we said that this like coming year, what we're gonna do is we're gonna go like a day or two after they open and we're gonna go like really late at night.
And I think that's where we're gonna get like videos of everything like empty and no one there. And yeah, I think that's, I think that's the ticket, but, but you know, we had the time and so we did it and it was, it was [00:22:00] great. And that was, that was honestly the last of the. Last of the good stuff because
Jordan: yeah, we got back and, and so it was, I woke up Monday
Sophie: morning.
It was like
Jordan: you had said, fuck you to Karma before we left. The way it treated you.
Sophie: Yeah. I woke up Monday started to not feel great and by Tuesday I felt like I'd been hit by a truck. And I just have to say this, I have to say this out loud. On this podcast staring into my husband's eyes right now, like I, we would've not survived without this guy who is the actual MVP of all of the holidays because you like took care of the kids for an entire week while I was, it was like the worst timing because we had all these plans with the kids.
I couldn't do shit. So like you had to kind of muster on without me. It was, yeah, so, so essentially what happened is, I [00:23:00] don't know what I got hit with, but it turned into an ear infection where like my ears were like literally plugged up. I couldn't hear anything. A sinus infection and bronchitis where I was just like coughing up along night.
Little che
Jordan: for you?
Sophie: Yeah, it was, it was disgusting and horrible. So. I mean, I finally had to go to the doctor and I got on meds, thank goodness. But, but like all that to say J is like, you are so amazing. Thanks buddy. And like, thank you for keeping our family together while I've been like, dealing with this crazy sickness that's just like hanging on for dear life.
So it's just been, I'm glad, I'm so glad that we had a beautiful Christmas and Hanukkah and celebration after. Because it's been, it's been an interesting one, but, but I think that we, you know, I think no matter what, you know, it still is so nice that we live in [00:24:00] X and that we can very easily access the things that we need, you know, walking, so.
You know, when you had to like go to the pharmacy to get me stuff, it was all pretty easy. Yeah. It wasn't like you had to like, you know, jump in a car and drive 20 minutes, which was really nice. It was nice. But, but yeah, we're, thank you for saying
Jordan: that. I appreciate it. Definitely. It definitely sucked. I mean, the twofold is like, you feel like shit, I hate that.
I know. And there's, there's no relief and it just is what it is. I will say that. You know, while we still had a ton of fun and I, I literally didn't clean their fucking room the entire time and because you were sick, we normally have some cleaners come over and help us out on a weekend and like clean up around here and we skipped that week.
'cause it was like, it was just way too much. You weren't feeling good. Didn't make sense to have them here.
It was like an additional full week where I couldn't [00:25:00] clean anything. So there, the room was such a disaster and I felt bad because I was like, you know, maybe I take this from like. From you and everything you read about, you know, clutter and how much more relaxed you are. Well, women
Sophie: do not do well with clutter and men, men are literally are fine sitting in a total shit hole and doesn't affect their brain at all.
Like children.
Jordan: I think those kids were happy as pigs and shit to have all of these like crafts spread around the room for two weeks straight. They didn't give a shit.
Sophie: Well, it drove me crazy, but I couldn't do anything about it 'cause I literally couldn't bend over because of my ears. Ver like potential vertigo.
Yeah. So
Jordan: it was just like, we still had so much fun, but we also on the side had a lot of those conversations of like, Hey man, listen, all of the, the parenting tricks like. Toss 'em out the window, like, do what you gotta do for survival, because again, [00:26:00]
Sophie: mm-hmm. Half
Jordan: the days I, it was cold. It's, it wasn't Chicago cold or Colorado cold.
We're both, we're feel like we had
Sophie: a cold snap here, but it, it was definitely for sure,
Jordan: very brisk. There was some bitterness of the cold. And again, like you walk down these corridors of, it's like a wind tunnel, buildings, well it's not just a wind tunnel, but like these gigantic cement. Structures, rows of buildings, like they really trap the temperature in.
They trap the cool in, and in the summer it does it in the shade. It feels amazing walking through the streets here, but in the winter, it like also traps the cold. So the kids didn't wanna go outside like, I'd bundle the fuck up, let's go on your scooters or on a bike, or go for a walk and pick up some treats.
And they're like, Nope. I'm like, y'all don't wanna go get chocolate? And they're like, Nope. Wanna stay inside? I'm like, you're three. You know what you want. Put your jacket on. Let's go outside. And like, they would fight me and I'm like, [00:27:00] well, this isn't worth it. So we were in the house. For a very long time.
Sophie: We watched a lot of movies.
Jordan: Watched a lot of movies.
Sophie: We did what we did, what we needed to do to survive. We survived. The kids went back,
Jordan: I mean,
Sophie: to school last week. It was glorious. And they were
Jordan: happy too. Like you could tell when they went back to school, like they were really thrilled. To have that change of pace because I think they were getting stir crazy, but like it was so course uncomfortable for them to like, of course, because they don't have the stamina to just go like cruise around the town for a while or go on long drives.
Right. So, uh, it was, I
Sophie: think eventually in the future, we'll think about traveling with them more, like potentially over the holidays or New Year's or something. I don't know. We'll see. But. But I'm glad, honestly, we didn't have any crazy plans.
Jordan: Well, yeah. I mean, besides our little out, just health wise, like you getting hit so hard.
Sophie: Yeah. That would've been miserable. So
Jordan: we just, we did a lot of, a lot of stuff, but I, I [00:28:00] mean, I don't know, I, I've been hearing it. A lot of people are getting sick so I think it was just kind of a rough one. It was an extended break where we didn't get a chance to travel. I think we've kind of been like kind of robbed of like holiday travel lately. Like we were over the summer, you know, for obviously important reasons, but couldn't travel, had to be here.
Same thing with this winter. So I think it's time to like take our holiday vacation time back and like. Just throw caution to the wind, jump on a train, don't know where it's going. Get the F
Sophie: out. We have a lot of, yeah, we have a lot of like fun kind of goals planned for this year. So next week we'll kind of wrap this up because unfortunately I'm still coughing a little bit.
My voice I can tell is getting a little, a little weak, but we just really wanted to like say hi to you guys. Start off the year together. Next week we'll talk more just kind of about fun things we have planned and also just like. Something that people don't talk about is winter [00:29:00] is, can be kind of brutal in Europe, but just kind of some fun ways to make it not so brutal.
You know, because that January, February is pretty, is pretty wild. I think actually like living here and experiencing it. So anyways, on that note, happy New Year. We hope you're having a fabulous start to your year and that you are not sick. Staying healthy. And we will see you next week to really kick everything off for the year.
Now,
Jordan: go have some sugar.
Sophie: No, avoid it at all costs.
Jordan: Do not.
Sophie: Okay. Talk to you soon, guys. Later. Bye.