Cecilia's First Trip to Paris July 2004

Cecilia's first buying trip to Paris was in July of 2004, at which time she was 6 months old. She behaved very well and let my father and I do all of our antique buying without interfering. Many dealers just fell in love with her and showered her with adorable gifts, like the rattan chair she is sitting on in the last picture. Like a good little tourist I had to take pictures of her with the Bateau Mouche on the Seine, with the Eiffel Tower, and Notre Dame Cathedral.
One of the best stories to have come from this trip was meeting Etienne Montigny. On the plane on the way over, we shared a central aisle with a couple who also had a baby, a little boy named Etienne who was a few months older than Cecilia. He was going to France to meet his extended family for the first time. We talked for a while and I took pictures of Cecilia's first flight experience.
Three years later, Cecilia started school at the Growing Place, a local preschool at the Methodist Church. She quickly began telling me about her favorite friend, Etienne. Soon enough we were invited to his birthday party, a few blocks away from our house. Once there I began to join in the French conversations since the majority of the guests were French. Emmanuelle, Etienne's mother, asked me how it was that I was fluent in French, and I began to explain that I am an antiques dealer and go to France 3 or 4 times each year. She paused and replied, "You know I've heard this story before, we were on a plane once..." Immediately we realized that our kids were the babies that had flown side by side and we had had this same conversation on that Air France flight to Paris! What a small world, and the chances that Etienne and Cecilia now got along together so well.
Here they are Etienne's Fourth Birthday Party at Merrie Christmas Park. They are still good friends and hopefully will be for a long time. The Montignys will be in our Cottage Living entertaining feature scheduled to print in January 2009.