Day 374, St. Victor-la-Coste, Southern France
If I had to choose one photo to represent our family’s love of travel it would be this one, and I’ll tell you why.
Ask anyone in our family to choose the location that best describes our love and history of travel as a family, and I’m quite certain this would be the unanimous choice. On our first trip to Europe in 2002, we were looking for a cute place to visit in Southern France and asked people who had been there for recommendations. We didn’t have to go far. Paul’s brother had done a term in St. Victor-la-Coste during his gap year. He helped restore the castle ruins and visited many of the area highlights. Sounded perfect.
Airbnb didn’t exist in those days, but VRBO, vacation rentals, did. We booked a house called, “The House with Blue Shutters,” at the base of the mountain, just below the chateau ruins. The castle, essentially, was in our backyard. We booked it for two weeks. The girls were 8, 4, and 2 months. We asked them if they’d like to stay in a house where there’s a castle in our backyard. They were over the top excited. The visit turned out to be as enchanting as the idea of it.
The town was small, no tourists just us and people who lived in the town. We would take picnics up to the castle and the girls would play for house while baby Cali napped in her snugli. When we first started going to the St. Vic castle, we never crossed paths with anyone there. The girls said it was their castle. It certainly felt that way. So many hours they created their imaginary worlds. When it started getting dark, we would walk down to see the sunset.
The rest of the time in the town we spent going for walks after dinner, going to the tiny weekly market, going to the square on Friday nights to eat at Pizza Chris mobile pizzeria. Every morning Paul would walk with whichever girl was interested, down to the local bakery for our baguette, pain chocolates, and other misc goodies. The woman at the bakery always gave the girls an extra treat. In the afternoons the older two would walk down to the square to get treats at the local store. All simple things, but in an unsual setting.
On many summers in Europe following that initial visit, we would always return to St. Vic for a couple of weeks, then spend the rest of our time visiting places we’d never been to. Familiarity for travelers is a great gift, if you can find a place you love that you go back repeatedly. The mix of seeing a place we know mixed with new experiences, for us, is the ideal way to see the world.
Since those days the owner of the House with Blue Shutters has passed away, and the house has been sold. Now when we visit St. Victor, we usually stay in a neighboring town and go there for a day trip. This year while we were traveling we asked Cali where she would like to spend her birthday. Without hesitation she answered, the castle at St. Vic. It didn’t really fit with our itinerary, but we shifted around our plans to make it happen. She didn’t realize what we were doing and we were able to surprise her with a birthday in the castle. I think she will always remember it.
In many ways, I now look back on those early times at the House with Blue Shutters, and think that’s where our love of travel began. Being together and focusing on our family with no distractions, being curious and discovering the world together has been the greatest gift to each of us individually, and collectively as a unit. So thank you St.Vic, for being so amazing that you sparked an inspiration to see the world.
Now we were coming to the end of our year traveling and Kier was with us. It was only fitting that we would visit the castle again before we left. The girls did a video this time. Can’t wait to see it. So many memories and so many more to make. 
