Some of you may recall that I made the decision to take my beautiful 84 year old mom and my amazing 13 year old daughter on a first class trip to Paris. A lifelong dream my mom has had and a lifelong goal I have had of making it come true.

Well… WE DID IT!

And, thanks to being employed and saving, saving, saving and my incredible travel agent Pat Forrest we did it all in style. The flights, hotels, private tours, food, shopping, tickets, chauffeurs… all of it.

If you were to have told me four years ago I would be able to do something like this I simply wouldn’t have believed it. I mean, four years ago I could barely afford a loaf of bread. Today? I got to watch my daughter MAKE bread in a Paris bakery!

We went to the top of the Eiffel Tower, walked along the Seine, ate beef bourguinon on the left bank, bought clothes and biscuits on the right bank, saw Notre Dame, The Mona Lisa, Monet, Van Gogh, Rodin, Napoleon’s tomb site, Arc de Triomphe, Luxemburg Gardens and slept in beautiful beds under chandeliers in an Abbey that had been transformed into a luxury hotel.

But the most beautiful, magical, amazing place by far that we visited was… each other.

Three generations of gals sharing quality time together without the distraction of computers, phones, work and school.

To watch my mother walk arm in arm with my daughter down the Champs-Elysee, to hold my mother’s hand as we stood in front of a Parisian dress shop, to hear my daughter laughing as she watched her Grammie wrestle with an umbrella at the Louvre, to sit over long, relaxing meals and listen to stories of my mother’s childhood that neither my daughter or I had ever heard.

To quite simply be in the moment. Smiling as we looked up at the sky, breathing in, squealing with excitement as we proclaimed, “We did it. We are here in Paris!”

Yes, that was no doubt the highlight of the trip. My daughter, my mother and me. Time stopped. It seemed to feel longer and more fulfilling. A minute was filled with precious sixty seconds of togetherness.

As we were sitting at our last breakfast in the beautiful Relais Christine Hotel I caught my mom staring at my daughter, her granddaughter. She leaned into me and whispered, “I can’t stop looking at her. She is truly so incredible.” 

Earlier that morning my daughter was snuggling with me in bed whispering, “Mommy, this was the most amazing trip. I never realized how hilarious Grammie was.”

I knew we were taking a trip, a special trip, a trip of a lifetime. What I didn’t know was that it would take us to the place we should never forget to visit, a place you don’t need to drive or get on a plane or spend a dime to go to…

A place found simply in the eyes of the person before you.

As we boarded the plane for home, holding hands and laughing until tears were rolling down our faces all I thought was,

Je aime ces deux personnes.

So, so much.

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