I remember that when I was a child, I believed that my family was royalty. That somehow we were more fortunate than everyone else. We were a middle class family but we had many grand adventures and experiences, all created out of love by my brave and generous parents.

I grew out of this delusion when I was a teenager but I saw many opportunities in my life for maximizing my experience. I learned from failures and I found joy in the small things. I referred to myself as lucky and I saw the world through rose coloured lenses.

Later life seemed more challenging and again my circumstances were a matter of perspective. My first real job was very difficult and I learned from this that I wanted some autonomy in my life. My beautiful wife agreed to quit her fast track Toronto job so that we could enroll me into Teachers College and we moved North and away from prosperity and a certain future.

Luck is a choice - sometimes. Sometimes setbacks are real but I am a short term skeptic and long term optimist. In any case my luck has been extraordinary and persistent in my life.

Teaching provided me with years of enjoyment and happiness. It also provided me with the opportunity to have this pension which allowed this latest journey which is the content of this current blog.

This blog is about my latest “win”. Marjorie has just retired from Nursing and as a retirement adventure we decided to go to visit our son Theo in France.

Having time and energy is a gift. We have both and our family needed us. Our son Theo has achieved more in his life than we could have ever anticipated. He, like his sisters before him, has always strived for excellence. He asked us to help and we were ready.

His eldest sister, Lissa, is a brilliant medical doctor who is a determined and committed defender and ally for the disenfranchised and particularly for refugees. She is a powerful advocate and a kind person who is doing exceptionally important things in her daily work.

His next sister, Rebecca, is a professional artist and university professor. She is a very accomplished and productive academic and artist and throughout her work she has acted as an advocate for people of all backgrounds. Her art reflects her strong commitment to representing and understanding her identity as a person of colour.

Theo is a professional soccer player who rose through the ranks of the Vancouver Whitecaps and then played in Norway and then Scotland. In Scotland, Theo became a breakthrough player and scored many goals and made many assists. It earned him a contract to play in France, in League 1, in one of the top 5 leagues in the world.

We came to France to spend time with our son but also to help him settle. As a football player he spends large amounts of time on the field and consequently has little time to create a home. This is where we stepped in and we were fortunate enough to fulfill the parenting role that we had given up when he moved out at 15 years old.

Theo has landed in Auxerre, France. This is a small, beautiful little town about an hour and a half south of Paris. Like so many other towns throughout France, the highlight and history of the town is dominated by the large Roman Catholic cathedrals which rise imperiously above the houseboat lined Yonne River.

Every couple of blocks in this area are cafe style restaurants with canopies and delicious menus. After several days, we had quickly identified our favourite food options and we had some clear favourites.

Many nights we ate at La Veranda, a quaint cafe style restaurant along the Yonne river. Here we ate crispy chicken salads and the Beef Bourgogne, named for the region. Theo was greeted here with incredible warmth and we eventually became so familiar that we had a favourite seating location and a bottle of chilled Chablis wine that they knew to get for us!

Later we found Mama Guilia, an Italian restaurant higher on the hill and well into the old town. Here we enjoyed many wonderful warm and sunny evenings and we ate a delicious Pizza and a smoked salmon salad that paired beautifully with another delicious, cold Chablis!

Most days, Marjorie and I toured the town and found items to stock Theo’s new house. We would go down to AJ Auxerre’s stadium and watch Theo’s team train in the morning and then we would go downtown and shop for food or go to Theo’s house to assemble furniture and prepare for new furniture to arrive. It meant that our days were filled with purpose and the resulting experience made us feel completely at home and invested in this project!

Days passed and we discovered the area. We traveled to Chablis more than once when our daughters and their spouses came to join us. We visited a nice restaurant recommended to us by my phenomenal sommelier friend, Peter Rod. Maufoux was a beautiful place to eat, with delicious fresh food paired again with extraordinary wine.

Auxerre is a quiet town, surrounded by rolling hills and fields filled with hay or sunflowers. Vineyards are a common sight. Much of the area resembled Van Gogh paintings and were evocative of times past. We spent most of our time touring the old town but we also had opportunities to travel to Troyes and Dijon.

Dijon, as you can imagine, is the source of the mustards and was a fun place to shop. In Troyes we found a small town that was well known for being the capital of Champagne!

A perk of this trip was watching Theo play. We watched his first game and AJ Auxerre’s first win in League 1. FC Nice played AJ Auxerre at home and the club supplied us with tickets in the family section. What an experience! We witnessed this first win and later joined the family and friends in the exclusive club lounge.

Here we celebrated,drinking Champagne and eating some wonderful hors d'oeuvres. This was something that we were not prepared for and it was a thrilling experience!

We drove to Nantes for Theo’s second game. Auxerre lost but it was a fantastic atmosphere and the 5 hour drive gave us a chance to see a lot of the French countryside. We drove through rolling hills and along straight highways. We also paid a lot for the privilege of using the toll roads. In Nantes we were joined by Rebecca and David (her fiancé) and Rebecca’s friend Romane. Becky and David are high energy travelers and they make mundane moments feel like events. The game was a loss for Auxerre but a fun road trip due to the company! We ate fish and chips at a wonderful Irish restaurant and said our goodbyes. We headed back to our hotel and eventually back to Auxerre while they headed into Paris for more fun. The takeaway from this trip is that travel is the best as a shared experience! Also, the Nantes' crowd was very fun and celebrated wildly!

The third game we watched was against Le Havre. This is a city in the Normandy region and is located North of Paris on the coast. We learned a lot about the rich history of the team and the region and we enjoyed being in a coastal town that was so diverse and vibrant. Auxerre lost again and Theo strained his hamstring. That evening Theo was heading to Kansas to play with the Canadian national team and his ride failed to show up. We were blessed with 2 extra hours with Theo as he awaited his next ride. We ate together in our hotel as we waited and then we wished Theo good luck and goodbye.

Just as Theo left, my sister Vikki and her daughter Sophia and my other sister Becky arrived from Canada. We had some quality time together in Auxerre. We used a rental car, (paid for by Theo) to drive around. Together we all planned and decorated Theo’s apartment. We toured the area and when Theo came back we ate in Chablis and all around Auxerre.

My worlds were colliding and it felt so nice. My family stepped up to help Theo and to be part of the journey and it felt fortunate. Family and travel always makes the experience richer!

Theo came back from the Canada camp because of his injury. He rehabbed as quickly as possible and was able to train a bit within a couple of days. He was in pain but he pushed through. We had one more game to watch and it was lined up to be a special occasion.

For the last game, we enjoyed watching Auxerre play Monaco in Auxerre. It was a third loss but somehow felt okay. Progress was being made by the team and we got to return to Theo’s home to eat dinner together. For this game our daughter Lissa and her boyfriend Nick were with us. We ate Sushi, provided by Theo, well into the night.

The last night of our stay was meant to be a formality. Lissa and Nick were there and Theo expressed that he really didn’t look forward to another night out.

That evening as we prepped for our last dinner out together, we heard a scream from upstairs! Lissa and Nick were there and I assumed that Lissa saw a rodent or a spider! I ran to see what was happening and found Lissa in tears holding out her hand and unable to speak! Nick had asked her to marry him and she was sporting a huge and beautiful diamond!

I can’t explain in writing the significance of the ceremony and the way that this transpired but the excitement and celebration that we felt was special. I, again, felt lucky. It felt like the sadness about leaving was flipped and the symbolism of the moment was overwhelmingly beautiful and supplanted the negative emotions about the trip coming to an end! We were leaving Theo but our family was expanding. What a wonderful day!

Theo enabled our adventures and has enriched our lives through his incredible journey. Becky and David joined in and raised the energy and the joy of the experience. My sisters and Sophia provided familiarity and comfort. They all brought incredible kindness and love. Then Lissa and Nick came and shared their love in a very intimate and touching manner. What a wonderful trip to France.

Thanks to my family, again, I feel incredibly lucky.