Mom Goes to France

Pauletta & Theresa on the plane...a day early

This blog update is different.  Normally I write updates on what Anna is doing. Today I am writing about my recent trip to France.  While I am not writing about Anna, I am writing about things that I learned....and hopefully they will be lessons for her down the road.

So, why did I go to France without my family?  Well, I can thank my good friend Pauletta for that.  First, a word about Pauletta.  We have been friends for the past 18 years, having moved to Washington and joined the Federal government at the same time.  As fellow mid-westerners (she is from Indiana) and history enthusiasts (we would forgo the twenty-something night at the bar for a visit to a historical site) as well as similar personality types on the Myers-Briggs test (INFJ - we are less than 1% of the population), it is not surprising we have been friends all this time.  We are even responsible for each other's husbands (Pauletta made me go on the one and only trip with the Capitol Hiking Club....which is how I met Joe and I picked the navy guy over the Coast Guard guy to rent the basement room in our house, which is how she met Wil).  I guess you could also say that we are both idea people - always thinking of something that would be new to do.....sometimes to the dismay of our respective husbands.  Even though we live only an hour apart, we actually see each other maybe twice a year - often meeting at a Virginia winery.  This leads me to the France trip.

One day, Pauletta sends me a note about the awesome flight deals to Europe.  We both started our escapist fantasies about how cool it would be to go and how long it has been since we were there (prior to marriage to be exact).  This is where I give all credit to Pauletta for actually broaching the idea with her husband.  We ultimately decided on France since we decided wine was going to be a theme of the trip and neither of our husbands had any desire to visit France (in fact, they both share a lot of the same French jokes...usually involving surrendering).  Pauletta secured her Mom to help with her boys and we booked the tickets.  I think both of our husbands were surprised as they did not expect us to actually do it.  I must admit that I surprised myself.  What followed was a great adventure filled with lots of lessons....and a chance to recapture our spirit of adventure.

So, what did we do on our French adventure?  Here are some of the highlights:

Wine tasting in Paris

• Had to depart 1 day early thanks to an Air France Strike (this worked in our favor since we got an extra day in Paris).
• Visited the Eiffel Tower (2nd level) and saw the twinkle lights at 10 PM 
• Pauletta attempted to thwart a terrorist ring near the Eiffel Tower, even reporting it to French police (with limited English skills).  It turned out to be an organized group of Middle Eastern men selling illicit wine to tourists in the park.
• Visited Notre Dame, the Deportation Memorial, Ile S. Louis, the Latin Quarter, Sainte-Chapelle, and the Conciergerie (former prison), the Orsay Museum, the Arc de Triomphe, and the Champs-Elysees
• Enjoyed a fantastic wine tasting at  O'Chateau in Paris
• Went to Disneyland Paris (because if you travel Pauletta and Disney is near...you must go)
• Traveled from Disney to Avignon in the small space between train cars because apparently we still needed to print our train tickets, even though Europe is supposed to be more technologically advanced with mobile phones than we are (this ride took some persuading with the French conductor who did not speak English).
• Got to experience French hospitality when we arrived at the hotel in Avignon only to find I accidentally booked two rooms.  The host graciously found someone else to take the second room.
• Enjoyed the medieval town of Avignon, including the Palace of the Popes, and lots of good food.
• Spent a day touring the countryside of Provence in our Mercedes convertible (it was the only automatic they had...and Pauletta found it much more fun to drive than her minivan).
• Visited the town of Arles and a fantastic French market.  The food was amazing!
• Toured the hilltop town of Les Baux and its castle ruins
• Visited the ancient Roman aqueduct of Pont du Gard, which was quite amazing.
• Spend a day on a French wine tour with Mike from Wine Safari (www.winesafari.net)
• Had to do a last minute scramble for a train to Marseilles thanks to a French train strike (striking seems to be a favorite French past time)



Roman Aqueduct

• Toured the Mediterranean city of Marseilles

There are probably hundreds of photos from this trip,thanks to Pauletta!

 My first lesson from this trip occurred before we even left when I realized how much I have lost my focus. When I say focus, I mean on the details that go into an event....something I previously excelled at.  This became apparent a couple weeks after booking the trip when I realized I had given Pauletta the wrong dates and that we would now be in France for the week when Anna had several events.  This resulted in me needing to move the dates, which created its own set of complications.  How could I have missed these dates?  This led me to wonder just how many other details I was missing.  Kudos to Pauletta who rolled with the changes.  Pauletta did more than roll with the changes.  She organized almost everything.  Clearly her planning abilities remain top notch!

My second lesson of the trip was resiliency.  I learned this from the most resilient person that I know, who happens to be Pauletta.  We really had to roll with things on this trip, beginning with an early departure thanks to a looming Air France strike.  I'm sure there is some side lesson in here for me about people living in glass houses as I deliberately avoided flying United and was relishing the prospective flight on Air France.  I had to roll with the travel booking company to change tickets.  I was up all night the day before we left to finalize items for work.  We had to find our way around a country in which we didn't speak the language.  We had a train ticket snafu in realizing we needed to print tickets.  Resiliency served us well in Provence.  There was the double booking of the hotel room (again my fault with lack of attention to detail) to driving around in a Mercedes convertible, to dealing with the rail strike....we really had to be flexible.

Touring the French countryside in a Mercedes convertible

My third lesson was the importance of getting away and doing something different.  It is so easy to get into a routine....and then you lose other skills.  How can you keep your sense of adventure if you do not do anything adventurous?  How do you maintain the ability to quickly adapt if you never do anything new?  There is a sense of security in routine.  Perhaps it is less stressful.  If you don't break out of it, how will you ever learn anything new?  Of course there is also the value of a change of scenery.  It really can change your perspective.

Finally, rather than a lesson, this is more of a reminder of the importance of friendship.  After 18 years of seeing each other through life's highs and lows, it is fitting that Pauletta and I could get a way and enjoy the fact that we have made it this far.  Who else is going to put up with my excitement over Romans ruins and walk with me to at least 15 different cafes while I try to assess which delicious meal I want to try and what is the best deal?  I think it is safe to say that we both were able to revel in things on this trip that our families would have not been nearly as excited about.  We could start with breakfast...maybe get a snack and completely skip lunch....and walk all over the cities and towns until we collapsed at night.  In the meantime, I appreciated Pauletta's eye for moments as she photographed France.  I also came to appreciate her sense of security.  Clearly her training has paid off as she can spot potential criminals everywhere!   Of course there is also her love of everything Disney....and I would not have gone to Disneyland Paris with anyone else.  As always, Pauletta's ability to seize the moment and celebrate are infectious.

Alas, we have returned home and back to our routines.  It was an awesome trip and I for one am very grateful to Joe for being agreeable to me going.  I bring back with  me  a renewed sense of adventure.  This may or may not bode will for Joe and Anna as I plan the next family outing.  La vie est ce que vous faite d elle.