Happy Family Times - Paris In The Fall

Château de Chenonceau

The best thing about those years is Saint-Nom-La-Breteche, was being near Vincent's family.  We got together for the holidays and special events.  One summer we celebrated the wedding of Vincent’s brother Denis.  There was a lovely reception at a château. Champagne and hors-d’oeuvres were served in the formal gardens.  Later inside, the dinner was capped off with desserts displayed on magical ice sculptures.

Here we are ready for the wedding.  

We celebrated Christopher’s first communion and invited the family to our house.

Three generations complete with a new baby.

Christopher and I in front of Vaux-Le-Vicomte, a jewel of a château. As an adult he returned here to propose to his wife.

Four laughing children: Chris, Charles, Marie-Juliette with little cousin Priscille.

At that time all three kids were enrolled in horseback riding lessons.  Vincent had taken lessons as a boy at the Ecole Militaire de Paris.  This is a vast complex of buildings that dates back to 1750. Napoléon did military training there.

Here is the Ecole Militaire(By DXR / Daniel Vorndran, CC BY-SA 3.0, )

Vincent believed that equestrian competence was essential to life.  He used to say something like: If you can manage/control a horse, you can manage your life.

Marie-Juliette ready for horseback riding lessons.

The children also took piano lessons for a year with a young American who had won a major competition. The prize was to study in Paris with a master pianist.  The fellow's apartment was along the Seine.  I would drop the children off and then walk across a bridge to a cozy café.

I remember walking along the sidewalk in the late afternoon.  The slanted light of autumn illuminated the falling leaves.  The mournful beauty played with my heart strings.  Just like Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra crooned:

I love Paris in the springtime

I love Paris in the fall

I love Paris in the winter when it drizzles

Ooh, I love Paris in the summer when it sizzles…