Happy Bastille Day! I have a fondness for this holiday for many reasons. Growing up I was not that impressed with the U.S of A. I felt more of a connection to Europe, especially France. As a young girl I went almost every summer to Lourdes, France. A village nestled in the French Alps that upon summer gets inundated with busses, the sick, those helping the sick, Catholics, Christians, the list goes on. Having been raised to be the perfect catholic girl I once dreamed of becoming a nun and helping the sick people at Lourdes. I remember Bastille day staying at the Hotel de la Grotte. Watching fireworks go off by the old castle. Sounds like a fairy tale doesn't it? Well it may be many things, one of them is not a fairytale. I do however have deep gratitude for my time spent there.
I loved France so much that I begged for years to be able to be an exchange student. I am pretty sure that from the age of 13 I asked my mother every year if I could go live in France. Every year it was the same answer. NO! Until my senior year of high school, which is the most important year of school especially if you are attending a college preparatory academy, my grandma gave the ok, and I was off to France. I took 1 french lesson, bought myself a teach yourself french book and within five months I was on french soil taking a weeks worth of french immersion before heading over to the lovely town where I was to meet my french family and attend school. A wonderful story begins here. But for now, the hour of the night calls. The beckoning of dreams, the heaviness of my eyelids all inspire me to say goodnight and sweet dreams, or good morning and have a blessed day,
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