The travel arrangements are complete! Thanks to Dave at Village Travel we have our round trip air tickets. We have chosen to fly in and out of Heathrow since I want to take the opportunity to visit with some special cousins in England on the way home.
From Heathrow we go into London and catch the train to Paris. We will spend one night there before traveling south to Revel, the town where Lise and her husband JP live. Lise was able to get us first class tickets on the TGV, the fast train from Paris to Grenoble, for 40 Euros each person by buying them in France. She mailed them to us and they arrived in Saturday's mail complete with a stamp of Mont St. Michel which we plan to visit on the return trip to England.
As a train enthusiast, I am looking forward to the train rides. I have heard great things about the TGV and can't wait to climb aboard!
We have arranged to rent a car in France and to rent a car in England. Looking at all these bookings and tickets is finally making this trip seem real!
Like winners before me, I am amazed at my good fortune, excited by the trip to come, and very grateful to the sponsors of this trip.
I want to thank the sponsors of the 2009 Allen's Pond Wildlife Sanctuary Duck Derby. Thank you to Bayside Restaurant, one of my favorite places to eat! I don't need to go anywhere else in the world to get really good food! But I am thankful for the opportunity to dine in France! Thank you Sylvan Nursery, another generous business we are lucky to have in town! Thank you to Nye the SmartGrease Company for helping to grease the wheels of this trip! Thank you OPPENHEIMER. Thank you to everyone at Millbury and Company who have always been so professional with all those we referred to you for real estate information! And last but not least, South Wharf Yacht Company for helping us to "sail away" on a great adventure!
Dave, at Village Travel in South Dartmouth, has been very helpful to my husband and me. Dave gave us a great deal of time to discuss the options, and book the tickets.
Ground transportation to and from our home in South Dartmouth to Logan Airport in Boston is being provided by Austin Limo. We are really happy that we won't have to struggle with the Southeast Expressway getting to and from Logan. Someone else will be at the wheel!
Thank you everyone for your sponsorship of this trip and your support for one of the gems of Dartmouth -- Allen's Pond Wildlife Sanctuary!
Duck Derby 2009, Allen's Pond, Dartmouth, Massachusetts
Courtesy of Allen's Pond Wildlife Sanctuary and Kathy Bartel
However, for me it is always about people. Thus, on June 26, two days after school ends, Roger and I will travel to the French Alps to visit Lise. Our friendship goes back to first grade. Lise has lived in France for more than three decades, has three children, and two grandchildren. for years, Lise has been asking me to visit her in Revel, a small village in the French Alps above Grenoble. Now, thanks to a little rubber duck, I will travel to France to visit her. I will also get to see her daughter, Caroline, my goddaughter, who was flower girl in our wedding 30 years ago this summer! I am also looking forward to meeting Caroline's children, Elaine (who was born on my birthday!) and Elowan who has just turned one!
Lise has been great about helping us plan this trip. She has even chosen the restaurant where we will eat, Le Restaurant Paul Bocuse in Lyon. Lise tells me that she had the best meal ever there. In any event, good food tastes better when we share it with good friends! I would be happy with bread and cheese on a mountainside but Lise wants us to have the full French gastronomic experience!
A proverb I am fond of is one traditionally attributed to the ancient Chinese: Every journey begins with a single step. This journey begins with a single rubber duck!
It was a hot day in July 2009 and the sidewalks of Padanaram, a small seaside village in southeastern Massachusetts, were jammed with people and vendors there for the annual Padanaram sidewalk sale. As I was making my way through the crowd, I saw Malcolm Johnson, the father of a former student of mine, standing under a big, black umbrella on the corner of Elm Street and Seaward lane. I stopped to say hello and ask him how his son was doing at college. We chatted briefly, and I looked at the fliers on his table. Mr. Johnson was selling ducks for the Allen's Pond Wildlife Sanctuary's annual Duck Derby, the organization's biggest fund raiser of the year. My son, Julian, had been telling me to buy ducks. So--since I happened to have money in my pocket, just enough for one duck, I bought one and named it -- Julian!
The weekend of the Duck Derby I was in the Adirondacks with my daughter Ellie visiting my oldest friend Lise. She had traveled to Keene Valley, New York from her home in France for a family reunion. we had a wonderful few days. We visited The Wild Center in Tupper Lake, New York -- a must see for any nature lover and the brainchild of one of Lise's cousins, Elizabeth Lowe. We talked, we ate, we swam in Long Lake, and at the end of the visit Lise made me promise to visit in in France as soon as I had a chance. It old her that with children still in college it would probably be quiet a while before that chance came along. However, sometimes everything comes together for a purpose.
When Ellie and I arrived home from Keene Valley there was a message on the answering machine asking me to call the director of the Allen's Pond Sanctuary, Gina Purtell. "Call her now," my husband Roger said. "You probably won something." "Maybe a gift certificate to Lees Market?" I speculated as I dialed.
No, it was not a gift certificate, it was The Prize -- The Big One: Dinner for two anywhere in the world. Wow! I immediately called Lise who was still in Keene Valley to say "guess whose coming for dinner?" Lise insists that it was meant to be. I still find it a bit mind-boggling to think that Julian, that lucky duckie, came in first out of more than 4, 000 rubber ducks!
