Sarah Lyle update - Bonjour from Paris

Bonjour tout le monde! What fun it has been to hear from everyone. I'll post my update now:

After graduating from Ole Miss in '93, I worked at Christ Methodist Church in Memphis as an assitant youth director. Then worked at Brooks Brothers while trying to figure out what to do with my life. As I had always dreamed of moving to the east coast, I succeeded in getting myself a glorious "non paid" intership at Mullen Advertising in a small town north of Boston. My live would be forever changed when I drove my mustang convertible up to the North Shore of Massechussetts to a small fishing town (and sailing capital of the US) called Marblehead where I found a tiny apartment to rent. Luckily, my intership turned into paying job (not much, i might ad) and I enjoyed discovering how northerners lived. Took sailing lessons, learned to cross country ski, how to eat lobster, and how to break the habit of saying "yes m'am and no sir" to avoid people laughing at me. At work, people actually thought that I was Scottish because of my very thick southern accent. While in Marblehead, I met a cute Frenchman who I dated for a couple of years and moved to Paris with (against my parents wishes since we were not engaged to be married).

Now if you think that life in Boston was different than Corinth, try moving to a new country not speaking the language. Upon arriving in Paris, i quickly signed up for French classes and tried to learn everything i could about the culture and "French" way of living. I got a job with with a French telecommunications company in fiber optics to do PR and marketing. This experience allowed me to learn french fluently and how Europeans work, which is very different than how Americans do. Things did not work out with Frenchman #1, and I ended up marrying his sister's boyfriend. I know, kind of confusing.

Emmanuel (from Versailles) and I have been married for 5 years and have 2 very active "enfants." Emma-Lyle is 3 and Louis-Georges will be 2 in April. They are so funny and are constantly mixing up French and English. We bought an old apartment in the center of the city (near St. Sulpice church) and spent a year or so fixing it up. For American standards, it is VERY small, but we love being able to walk everywhere (yes to the grocery store, pharmacy, bakery, butcher, etc) not having a lot of "home upkeep". Oftentimes i dream of having a yard with green grass and then i just look out at the beautiful buildings and monuments of Paris or bite into a crunchy baquette or drink a glass of wonderful french wine, and I am content.

After having worked for a french consumer electronics company called Archos, I recently switched to an American marekting/communications agency called Loomis Group. They are based in San Francisco and have their European office in Paris. Emmanuel works for a French bank doing investment banking. He rarely gets home before 10:00 pm and me before 7:30, so we are always running. We are lucky to have a wonderful Philippino nanny who helps us keep the kids.

I often tell Emmanuel about all of our crazy and wild times at CHS. He loves each visit back home and would love for us to move back to the south one day. So let me know if any of you hear of any French teaching jobs!

I miss and think of you all often.
A bientot!
Sarah Lyle (Sassy)