This past year was filled with wondrous experiences, sharing with friends, peace, and love for us. We spent nearly eight months of it–from early February to late September–on the Côte d'Azur, the French Riviera. It was, for us, the stuff of dreams. The Mediterranean Sea was a stone's throw from our back balcony and on clear days the Alps were visible out our front door. Counting only weekends, vacation days, and holidays we spent nearly ninety days vacationing as a family, sometimes with family or friends, in Europe. Even "workdays" were mini-vacations. During those days, Missy and Eric would sightsee, shop, and play at beaches, parks, and with European friends while Curt thoroughly enjoyed the role of being the resident expert on a product at IBM. Workday evenings were spent together as a family as there were minimal outside distractions; little mail to handle, few phone calls, newspapers, magazines, chores, or TV channels. While spending days in each of France, Monaco, Spain, Italy, and Switzerland, we visited museums, galleries, castles, religious buildings (Cathedrals, monasteries, churches, etc.), mountain tops, gorges, beaches, islands, lakes, waterfalls, palaces, historic sites, forts, parks, gardens, zoos, miscellaneous tourist attractions (e.g., aquariums, water parks, amusement parks), scenic mountain, valley, and seaside roads, medieval hilltop villages, and over fifty cities and towns including Nice, Cannes, Monte Carlo, St Tropez, Barcelona, Carcassonne, Avignon, Milan, Venice, Lucerne, Interlaken, Lyon, Geneva, and, our favorite, Paris. We even did a little sightseeing in London during a one day layover on our flight back to the States. We attended several famous seasonal events including the Cannes film festival, Mardi Gras in Nice, and the Monaco Grand Prix time trials (Eric's fascination for cars and trucks and things that go seems boundless). The above listing is readily available to us because we kept a diary. If you'd like a copy of our 1995 Frantz's in France Diary, let us know and we'll send you one. Family and friends we've shared it with say it is well-written, entertaining, and informative. It is also long (nearly a hundred pages).
We enjoyed the company we had while in Europe. Carolyn Bloemker, Eric's Amie, spent some days touring with us after "schooling" for a week at a nearby coastal resort (those McKinsey consultants have it too easy). Long time friends Cathe Nold and Bill Bosler stayed with us for a few days before stopping in Paris on their European vacation, as did Ann and moocher Mark Mazziotta. Missy's mom, Joyce Leslie, vacationed two weeks in the midst of summer with us and former co-worker Chris Ballard and fiancée AnaMaria stayed with us the day they announced their engagement.
During our time in Europe, Curt, then Eric following Curt's lead, would often stop and gloat, or rather think aloud, "I wonder what the poor people are doing?" That's what Eric is doing on our seasonal postcard as he rides on the bow of a paddle boat cruising up the Verdon River in the "Grand Canyon of Europe", the Verdon Gorge. Eric also crafted a line of his own. Whenever we were about to go someplace or do something for the first time, Curt or Missy would say something like, "We never did this before." Eric would invariably counter with, "I did it when I was bigger." We would go off into storytelling about things he did when he was bigger; his imagination enriched by the enormous variety of experiences he was having.
Eric did have a difficult time when we first arrived in France. We had delayed our trip one month so Eric could have some dental work done. Two front teeth needed a significant amount of work–decay had set in on and around a chipped tooth–and as part of it Eric received drugs for the first time in his life. The two intense sessions with the dentist were very unpleasant for him and, because Missy and Curt weren't allowed to be with him and help him during the procedures, it led to somewhat of a rupture in our relationships with him. He became prone to throwing tantrums. It took six weeks and a concerted effort from Missy–the key figure in his life–to help Eric work through his mixed emotions. There doesn't seem to be any long lasting negative effects of his dentist visits and his teeth are much better.
Eric loved being in Europe. Anywhere he is with mom and dad feels like home to him. He talks about going back to France but for now, while home in North Carolina, he says he is in "the best house in the whole world, even better than any in France." He kissed the floor in our house when we first arrived home from Europe.
Being in Europe was most demanding on Missy. She was away from her parenting and breastfeeding support group (La Leche League), her soccer teammates, neighbors and friends she used to see nearly every day, and she had to find stores that supplied us with the types of obscure groceries that we incorporate in our vegan diets. French people with whom she interacted often did not speak English. Missy did a super job taking on new responsibilities while being disadvantaged. She developed several close friendships in France, helping one new mom overcome major difficulties and prejudices from her medical professionals in order to successfully breastfeed her baby. That was very rewarding for Missy, Terese, and baby Patrick Reynolds. On our return to the U.S., in her third soccer game, Missy tore her anterior cruciate ligament. She'll undergo surgery to repair it in January. She's been dedicated to conditioning her leg prior to the surgery and with that same dedication, we hope and expect her to make a full and speedy recovery.
Returning from Europe was most demanding on Curt; who now knows what the poor people are doing. All year Curt had been sought out for his knowledge of an important IBM product that he helped develop. He was the last developer still working on the product and that made him much in demand. In just the first six weeks of the year, while postponing the trip to France, there were opportunities for Curt to go to California, Texas, New York, Washington DC, and Australia. They were all turned down or not followed up so Curt could transfer some of his skills to local IBMers and so he could be available during Eric's dental work. When he returned from France, Curt came off what seemed like an eight month vacation in perhaps the most beautiful region in the world, in a position at IBM in which he was practically revered as a demigod and for which he was getting paid oodles of cash for expenses above his regular salary. Back in North Carolina, the Alps, the Mediterranean, and the naked women on the beaches were gone, the extra cash stopped, Curt started in a new position with IBM dropping in expertise from the pinnacle to the lowest rung overnight, and he reassumed old not especially enjoyed responsibilities and chores (e.g., house and yard maintenance). Does he have your pity?
During the year, we did little with our home business, Alternate Healthier Choices. Since we spent nothing on advertising or developing new products, the business showed a small profit this year. One of our goals for the coming year is to make our business more successful. Our audio tape program, Healthy Pain Free Drug Free Childbirth, received a positive review in the July/August issue of Journal of Nurse-Midwifery and that will help our marketing. Early next year we are scheduled to host a class based on our book, Have the Wedding You Want for Less than $500. We hope classes or seminars based on our products may become significant revenue producers. We intend to develop our third product, a book on healthy, natural parenting, during 1996. Curt's IBM management and co-workers have been supportive in this effort. He is working four ten hour days so he can devote the fifth weekday full-time to our home business.
Even with all the traveling we did in Europe, we were up for more of it when we got back to the U.S.. About a month after our return, we drove to Ohio to see our newest nephew, five and a half month old Jacob, and other family members and friends we missed while out of the country. Curt's parents drove to Ohio from Pennsylvania and Missy's came in from Michigan in part to see us and to meet each other. From just outside Cleveland we drove to Washington, DC to share in the wedding of Amie Carolyn and Chris Groobey. They were married in the National Cathedral. Our last vacation of the year will took us to Pennsylvania for the holidays.
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