Words aren’t enough to express my gratitude to my husband and family for the amazing birthday they orchestrated. With so much thought and love. The months of May and June were filled with visiting amazing places and spending time with people I so appreciate. I feel almost overwhelmed. We spent an amazing long weekend in France visiting the Monet gardens in Giverny and friends in Orleans. My husband knows I love Monet. He was well prepared and had come up with a truly creative concept. During the preceding week, he had invited an art teacher at home to teach the kids ( and himself) about impressionism, Monet and how to paint the famous Water lilies or ‘Nenufares’ as they are called in French. As part of my gift, I was given these moving pieces of art, so well representing each of my child’s (and my husband’s) character, temperament and inner life. They had gotten the freedom to choose themselves the colour palette for their pieces of work and consequently the schemes varied from flashy autumnal orange tones (my son), through springy pastels (my middle daughter) to ripe summery greens (my eldest and my husband). With this, the visit to the gardens had a context and meaningfulness to the little ones and they were truly impressed while standing on the Japanese bridge and admiring the beautiful setting from the paintings.
We had woken up after a long evening of driving in an cute gite close to Giverny where the day started very French: my husband took the kids to an early adventure to search for a Boulanger. And yes, they came back with divine freshly baked croissants and pain au chocolates. The kids were over the moon for this special treat! And the gifts. I got a unique gift from each of them, beautiful and tastefully chosen. And as if I was not already overwhelmed by emotion, I got two beautiful love letters, one from my husband and one from my eldest daughter. I will keep them in my heart forever.
We left Giverny and headed towards the beautiful valley of Loire, and our friends house in Orleans. What an immersion to the best of French Joie de vivre! Visits to the idyllic old tow of Orleans and walks by the lush and green river side, delicious food and wine, long evenings enjoying the early summer’s warmth..
The trip was parfume to all my senses: the aesthetics in the gardens, the warmth of our friends hosting and most importantly, the deep love from my husband and children. I am ever grateful.
P.s My husband got clearly bitten by the ‘joie de vivre’ bug. Last night, our romantic dinner for two turned into a surprise dinner party with our closest friends and neighbours! And I was delivered a speech from him together with a collage of my childhood pictures and reasons why he loves me ❤️ I think he (rightly) considers his birthday contributions are now done for the next decade😀
