We'll Always Have Paris Too

"A trip to Paris had sounded so adventurous when I was first talking about it a year earlier. People spoke about the city with dreamy longing, as though Paris possessed a magic that could not be found elsewhere. I'd never heard anyone talk about Paris without sighing. The city was a Promised Land that held appeal for most everyone: artists, lovers, even people who just liked cheese."

-Jennifer Coburn, We'll Always Have Paris (2014)

Last Saturday night as I was browsing through Barnes & Noble, a special book caught my attention. As I skimmed through We'll Always Have Paris, I realized that I just had to buy this book even though I wasn't in need of something to read. The author and her daughter had some adventures while traveling in Europe, and I could relate to this because I also had a trip to Paris and the Netherlands with my daughter, Lydia. I read the book in three days and enjoyed it very much. It was just the break that I needed from reading One Hundred Years of Solitude.

Jennifer Coburn, the author of We'll Always Have Paris, always had a feeling that she would die young. It wasn't so much a "feeling" as it was a "fear," a fear that she didn't have much time to make amazing memories with her only child, Katie. So, when Katie was just 8 years old, she and her daughter made their first trip to Europe, a trip to Paris and London. The second trip was three   years later, a trip to Italy. The third trip was another three years later, a trip to Spain, and by this time, Katie was 14 years old. One common thread that runs through Coburn's account is that every single trip had some bumps and bruises, some times when everything was not perfect. They prepared very well for their trips, but unexpected things always happened. For example, Katie got sick or they had to change their plans because the lines were too long to see a much-anticipated icon of the country. At times they even felt that people were taking advantage of them, i.e. trying to cheat them out of money. Katie was much calmer than her mother when these types of things happened, and she seemed to just go with the flow. She taught her mother some valuable lessons about patience, flexibility, love, and being spontaneous. She taught her mother how to enjoy the present and how to have a great adventure instead of worrying about something that probably won't happen.

My daughter and I also went to Europe together, and I give her a lot of the credit for making the trip so memorable. Lydia, now 21 years old, is an adventurous young lady who really knows how to enjoy life. Coburn dedicated her book to her daughter, Katie, and writes "For Katie Who makes every day a wonderful adventure." I could say the same about our Lydia, a rising Senior in college. Lydia has had many adventures in the past few years, and I've enjoyed being a small part of them. When Lydia graduated from high school in 2012, she and I made our first trip to Europe. We went to Paris and the Netherlands for a 10-day trip. We spent the prior six months planning the trip. We googled, read, and took advice from other travelers as we planned our itinerary and made reservations. Everything did not always go exactly as planned but I wouldn't change anything because I learned something every single day. We got to see everything on our list plus some other things that we had not planned on, so I would call the trip a great success. Some of the "bumps" along the way included getting lost, getting on the wrong train in Paris, arriving in Haarlem, Netherlands to find that our hotel was actually too far to walk to, and so on. But I would not change anything. Because of the glitch in my plans in Haarlem, we got to chat with a nice Dutch bus driver who politely answered my request regarding a ride to our hotel. I found that the Dutch are very nice people, and I would love to go back and just travel all over the small country. Perhaps next time I will get to ride a boat in a canal, visit the Van Gogh Museum, and see the tulips. My most memorable experience in the Netherlands was visiting the Corrie ten Boom home in Haarlem. The ten Booms saved many Jews during the reign of the Nazis, and you can visit their home and see the hidden closet where people hid. The woman who gave us our tour of the small house was an American Jew, and she said that if anyone wanted to know how they could have the same hope in God as the ten Boom family had, they could stay after the tour and she would talk to them. Wow - what a witness to the hope found in living a life with purpose in Christ! I will never forget the impact that this had on my life.

You may wonder what motivated Coburn to travel with her daughter. Well, she believed that if she died prematurely as she feared, at least her daughter would have the great memories of their three trips to Europe together. This fear of an early death was often in the forefront of her mind, so she wanted to fully enjoy her daughter. My daughter and I also have great memories, and we will always have them. I treasure them. Lydia and I will always have Paris too. Lydia got to return to Paris in 2014 with a college group, and she made even more memories. My husband and I were able to go to the UK for the first time in 2014, and we had a great time as well. Our son, Benjamin, is yet to have a great trip adventure, but he is looking forward to it in the future. So, while a fear of my premature death doesn't motivate me to travel, my desire to make memories with my family does.

Here are the next ten books that I've read since 1984:

1. My Father's House by Anne Graham Lotz

2. Traveling Light by Max Lucado

3. The Circle by Dave Eggers

4. Pastel Orphans by Gemma Liviero

5. The Sigma Protocol by Robert Ludlum

6. Martin Luther: The Best From All His Works by Luther

7. The Big Little School by Robert Lynn & E. Wright

8. Fall On Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald

9. The Bridge by Doug Marlette

10. Christy by Catherine Marshall

Have a wonderful day! And have a great adventure!

-Melissa