25. Making family memories.It would be an understatement to say that my kids didn't want to move to France. The evening we laid the news on them, our eldest left the dinner table in tears. But two years is a lifetime when you're young and now they will honestly tell you that, while there are things back home they miss, particularly friends and food, they really do like living in Paris. The friends they stay in touch with via Internet phone and e-mail and the food...well let's just say there are fewer things they're pining for now than when we had just arrived.
All told, three years in Paris is, without a doubt, the biggest gift my husband and I have ever given our kids and ourselves. Our kids may forget how to solve simultaneous equations and the ins and outs of photosynthesis but they won't forget going to the boulangerie after school, riding their bikes in the Bois de Boulogne, free museum Sundays or admiring the Christmas lights on the Champs Elysees. And we won't forget watching them discover a whole new world, both in Paris and beyond, our youngest correcting our French pronunciation and our oldest learning to navigate the subway solo, or both of them having the good manners not to refuse snails and foie gras when offered.
Paris will always be a part of us and our intertwined lives, no matter where we find ourselves. Of the 25 things we all love about Paris, we love them most because we have experienced them together.
3 comments:
That's very heartfelt. I'm sure wherever you and your family goes next, Paris will always be in each and everyone's heart. E. Hemingway's quote in a Moveable Feast is a proven testament of the feeling that each person will encounter until she/he lives and breathes Paris. So is your three years up already?
Hello there, I'm new to your blog but enjoying it. I concur with this post and the last - we are more than half-way through a stay in Budapest and one of our boys REALLY did not want to come; he spent the first year whining. However, now we can see that he has started to appreciate the differences and opportunities. As for the friendships - totally agree!
I know exactly how they feel, because I too, did not want to go to Paris the first time. Now you would find it difficult to keep me away, even though I know it's not the paradise I first thought it might be.
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