Mid-Life Retirement

I'm finding it really hard to find an appropriate beginning to my blog, since I'm a bit new in the daily blogosphere. I've written my share of Travel Blogs but those always revolve around stories and this one is just about my daily life in rural France.

Maybe that's a good starting point for this...What exactly am I doing in rural France?

Now, there are two kinds of answers I can give you. The practical one is that I'm taking a year-long sabbatical with some family friends who are graciously letting me live with them in exchange for a little help keeping the house and kids in order while the parents work their busy jobs. Hence this blog being called "Zee (The with a little French accent) Au Pair (French for nanny)."

On a transcendental level I'm rationalizing this year as a retreat from concerns of everyday city life; a kind of early (and temporary) retirement without a pension plan or the onset of arthritis. Instead of waiting until I'm old, I'm taking this year to indulge in leisure activities and reflection all while experiencing life in a new country. Ugh, that last sentence makes me sound like some sort of holistic fruitcake; basically, I'm just indulging my urge to do nothing, while making it look like something.