The children were born in France, the father was French, the children had been residing in France continuously until their removal by the mother, the father was married to the mother and thus enjoyed the presumption of joint custody under French law, the father and mother were living together with the children immediately before the removal, and the father exercised his parental rights before the children were wrongfully retained in the United States.

The father did not commence proceedings before a judicial or administrative authority within a year of the mother s wrongful retention and the  settled in their environment exception to the automatic return of the children applied. No equitable reason existed to preclude application of A settled in their environment exception. The mother did not hide the children and in fact called the father the first day of the wrongful retention and told the father the location of the children.

The children, who were eight and five years old at the time of the hearing, were settled in their new environment. The children had been in the United States for 18 months. The mother and the children lived with the mother= s brother for eight months until they moved to a rented house. The children attended school or day care consistently and had friends and relatives in the area. The family attended church regularly, and the mother had stable employment with the same employer for more than one year.