Guest Poster Diane Croad on finding time for France

Good day everyone! Today is the first guest post (besides my wife's Fidelia's Friday posts) on my blog. It is my pleasure to introduce you to Diane Croad, a lovely Englishwoman and proud grandmother of 60-something years of age, who really should be 30-something! (She'll love me for that!)

Diane and I became good friends since meeting each other in the blogging world, and she has been a faithful follower of my blog ever since. Today she's talking about how she manages her time between native England, and France. After you've finished reading her post, you really should go over and check out Diane's lovely blog

Diane, it's all yours!

“We’re Moving to Paris.....”

The family arrived for their usual Sunday meal with us. (Daughter, son-in-law and six year old granddaughter).

During the course of the meal, everything was very relaxed, when my daughter looked up and said “oh, Mark’s got a new job with exciting prospects.”  We were naturally thrilled for them, until I asked where the job was.  “Paris”, my son-in-law replied.  There was a short silence whilst hubby and I tried to take this in.

My daughter had returned to work when my granddaughter was only seven months old, and I had looked after her for three days a week, taking her to and from school when she reached the age of five.

You can imagine, I am sure, just how much I was going to miss her, especially as she was now such good company.

Looking on the bright side, I was thankful that they were only moving to France, which is just across the channel from where we live in England.  They could have been moving to the other side of the world, like Australia, Canada, or even Malaysia!

I travelled to France to see them after a month, and my daughter took me to Eleanor’s school.  My granddaughter was sitting there whilst all the other children were discussing a project that they had been working on that term.  They were chattering away excitedly and my poor little girl was just sat there.  I just had to go up to her and give her a cuddle. “I can’t understand what they’re saying, grandma.”  My heart broke for her.

Anyway, the good thing was that, with a lot of effort, she picked up the language and now, of course, speaks French fluently, without any accent at all.  She will be fifteen in December, and has turned into a stunning young lady.  I have always tried to be with her for every birthday, and I treasure that time I was able to spend with her during the first six years of her life. 

We get on tremendously well and, in fact, just the two of us will be going on holiday to Gran Canaria at the end of October – at her request! To think that a fourteen year old wants to go on holiday with her 65 year old grandma means such a lot to me.

On the plus side of living apart from the family, I have visited Paris many, many times and what a beautiful city it is.  I have taken a Bateau-mouche up the River Seine, I have visited the stunning Palace of Versailles, seen the Mona Lisa in the Louvre Museum and visited the beautiful Monet’s Garden in Giverny, (Oh, and EuroDisney of course!) to name but a few.

Here is a photo of Eleanor and I taken this summer in Monet’s Garden.

I would like to thank Duncan for inviting me to be a guest blogger here today.  I always enjoy reading his tales of Kuantan, and seeing his wonderful photographs, and hearing all about his beautiful family, so this is a real honour for me.  Thank you Duncan!

Diane, you are very much welcome!

Don't forget to pay Diane a visit here!