Evening Special Effects!
What’s this? This was my seven year old daughter rejoicing in an unexpected and profuse show of bubbles, part of an “Evening Spectacular” at Versaille Chateaux and Jardin, France.
It was during the summer of 2009 that my family had it’s first unique experience of exchanging our home, in a suburb of New York City, with two families in France. The first family’s home was a 400 year old townhouse in a tiny, remote mountain village in the Languedoc region. The second family’s home was a lovely Tudor style home in a prestigious suburb of Paris.
We spent ten and twelve days respectively in each home, and then added eight more nights which we spent in hotels and B & B’s near the landing beaches in Normandy, on Mont St. Michel, and in Paris. In total we spent a whole glorious month in France. (note: prior to France, we also spent two weeks in a home exchange in Andalucia, Spain.)
At that time, this six week trip was beyond anything I thought I’d ever have the good fortune of experiencing; especially given that I was a middle aged wife and mother. But I did get to experience it, and it was as good, if not better, than I could have imagined. We got to experience all sorts of wonderful places, Unesco World Heritage Sites and Off the Beaten Path; We got to immerse ourselves in the culture of the areas we visited. We also got to spend tons of quality family time together and created incredible memories.
Just one of the many, many treasured family memories that we created was captured in that photo of my then seven year old daughter enjoying the French bubbly!
I was not at all surprised by how much I loved visiting Versaille, because I love to visit beautiful gardens. I was surprised by the joy I felt watching my daughter dancing and reveling in those bubbles. I never saw such unbridled glee! She looked the way I felt – very, very happy! That photo and that memory will always be special to me.
If you would like to see photos of our 2009 Cultural Adventure, please have a look on my website.
