The Day That We Decided To Go To France

In the words of the renowned story-teller Meatloaf…. ‘I remember every little thing as if it happened only yesterday…’

I’m talking about the day that we decided to go to France. Scotty finally agreed to travel to France. 

I’d been working on becoming a Francophile for around 7 years by then. (If you haven’t read that story, you can check it out here.) I had started collecting French books. I’d read every word in the 2007 Gourmet Traveller French issue about 1,000 times. (Can you believe I still have that now very dog-eared issue sitting on my bookshelf?) And I asked Scotty at least twice a week if I could please book a trip to France. If I’m being honest, it really was getting to the point where I thought we might never go. Or if I did get to France, I’d be travelling solo.

So anyway, on Monday, November 5th, 2007 (oddly specific, I know, but please refer to Meatloaf quote above) we were sitting in the sun at the Spotswood Primary School sports carnival. Our son didn’t end up being particularly athletic until he was an adult, so there was no harm in the fact that I was more interested in the newspaper than I was in kids running and jumping all over the place. 

My attention was captured by an Emirates Airlines ad, spruiking return flights from Melbourne to Paris. Looking back, I don’t think those flights were particularly cheap, but they were affordable enough for us at the time. And they were for travel dates almost 11 months away, which I figured would give us time to get ourselves sorted. So I looked across at Scotty, who was sprawled on the other half of my picnic blanket and floated the idea that I’d floated hundreds of times before.

“Emirates are having a sale….do you think we could go to France next October?”

And Then It Happened – We Decided To Go To France

And who knows if Scotty had been possessed by aliens or was just overcome with excitement over the Grade 3 hurdles. But after screwing up his nose at the idea so many times in the past, on that Monday in Spotswood, he said ‘yes’. We’d done it. We’d finally decided to go to France.

Now these days, I would have had those flights booked in 37 seconds flat. And I would’ve turned the moment into an Insta Post. And a Story. Gee, I might have even made a Reel I was that thrilled with his response. But remember, this was back in the days when mobile phones didn’t do much more than act as, well, telephones. (Although, you probably guessed that by the fact that I was tempted by an ad in a broadsheet newspaper.) And as it was, that particular Monday was the day before a public holiday in Melbourne. Which meant I couldn’t stalk the travel agents until the Wednesday. 

Let me tell you though, I never once questioned Scotty’s response in the space between his affirmative answer and my paying for those flights. No correspondence was entered into. Not one single piece. I had my yes and I was running with it. And I went straight into full on planning mode for our very first visit to France.

Do you remember when you first decided to go to France or any destination that had been on your heart for a while? I’d love you to share your memories in the comments section below

And until next time – au revoir.