<human>: I suppose this is about an (impending) breakup, but we're still together so I'll put it under relationships.

My girlfriend is going spending next year abroad in France (late-August to May 2016). Let me be clear, we both knew she was planning on doing this when we started dating in late October, so it's not a spur of the moment thing. But we did decide when we got together that we weren't going to long distance since we've both had pretty horrible experiences with them in the past. 

The relationship itself has been pretty great, we've gotten really close and even started saying "I love you" back in December. We've actually gotten to view the deadline as a bit of a godsend; the relationship can end with nobody being the bad guy. But now that it's getting closer, I'm getting concerned about the technical details of the breakup. She's decided to go home to her parents place (we're both in college) 4 hours away for the summer so she can work and and spend time with her family. That means we'll effectively stop seeing each other about 2 months before goes to France. 

How and when should we end the relationship, and is there a way to do it in which we can transition back to our original friendship dynamic. I should mention, that we were really close friends for about a year before we started dating. We have the same friend group and her roommate/best friend is one also one of my best friends. The point is, we're often gonna be in the same room as each other when she gets back. 

Any advice or guidance would be much apprecieated.

Can you give me a shortened version of the text?
<bot>: I'm in a relationship with an expiration date. We're both okay with breaking up, I'm looking for advice on how/when to do it so we can return to being friends.