Good morning/afternoon/evening (depending on your time zone). We interrupt your regularly scheduled reading of travelogues to bring you this important message: The Fischer Family is going to be featured on House Hunters International! I was actually not planning on saying anything until our episode aired, but our producer outed us on Facebook and Adrian Leeds has already shared information about it in her newsletter so I guess I can share a bit about it here. Or can I?

We signed a document saying we would not discuss our episode. Wah-wah. I know. I hate to be a Debbie Downer. Now that we’ve filmed, I see why they’ve had us sign that document. There are interesting moments and surprises in the episode that they want to preserve. Once the episode airs, I should be able to write a little more and discuss specific details.

In the meantime, here’s what I can say: Filming days were long, from 8:30 a.m. – 7:30 p.m.. Each day was both exhilarating and exhausting. We were asked tons of questions, some of which I found very deep. I like to reflect before speaking, which in hindsight probably drove the crew crazy. I would start to answer a question on camera and then say, “Wait a minute. I have to think about that.” We filmed in several different locations in Paris and we had to be flexible enough to change the plan if the weather didn’t cooperate or if it was simply too noisy in a certain area. Guess what? Paris is really noisy.

The kids were absolute superstars all week. They hung out with babysitters while Jonas and I were filming and spent the rest of the time on camera with us. You never know how a 3- and 6-year-old are going to react in that situation but they exceeded our expectations. They were both eager to get miked up (they called the equipment “secret walkie talkies”) and join the House Hunters International party. The crewmembers were so wonderful with them. Our sound recordist, James, allowed Rhône and Rocky to wear his headphones multiple times and our cameraman, Matt, was kind enough to let them touch and look through his $30,000 camera!

In addition to James and Matt, we worked with talented director/producer Samantha, who was incredibly patient and focused and did a fantastic job of keeping us all on track. We also had a “fixer” with us, a lovely guy from Cannes named Kevin who drove everyone around Paris in a van, moved equipment, occasionally stopped traffic on the sidewalk so we could film, got food and beverages for us, spoke with owners of establishments about filming, obtained releases, made restaurant reservations…the list goes on and on. Kevin really fixed anything and everything, including my hair! He found some glossy spray at a hotel for me because my hair was crazy staticky one day and instead of just handing it to me, he skillfully sprayed it on my locks. Wow.

And let’s not forget Adrian Leeds. Truth be told, I haven’t seen very many episodes of House Hunters International and I had maybe seen one with Adrian in it before, so I didn’t really come with any expectations. After our time together, here is my synopsis: I LOVE Adrian Leeds. She is whip smart, warm, interesting, funny, positive and full of useful tips. I just love how she exudes color and life. Our director Sam was saying she hoped to see a rainbow in Paris because it had been raining a lot. I pointed to Adrian and said, “You’ve already seen one!”

All in all this was an incredible experience for our family. We had a lot of fun hanging out with the crew, discovered new parts of Paris, ate delicious food, laughed until we cried over silly things and I only sustained one minor injury during filming! (It was due to my own clumsiness. More on that later.) We hope this episode will be a nice snapshot of our time in Paris and maybe even inspire other people to take the leap and realize their dreams of moving abroad.

I’m told the House Hunters International editors are hard at work now. We are looking forward to seeing our episode put together, probably in about 6 months time. I’ll keep you posted! Okay, now back to travelogues…