THE MOULIN ROUGE CIRCA 2002

The actual Moulin Rouge taken in 2002 - not exactly Baz Luhrman's Moulin Rouge......but still.

I promised you a personal story about Paris....

 What I'm about to suggest may sound obnoxiously privileged but here me out.  To any of you who have small children... if you have the opportunity to take your children on their first trip to Paris, do.  Braxton and I had never been to Europe, and frankly probably would not have gone in 2002 if not for the fact that our daughters needed wanted to so very badly.  They were both interested in pursuing an artist's life and had been oil painting and studying art and art history for most of their lives...so, Paris was logical. 

We are not wealthy people and frankly it took months and months to pay off that trip, but Paris is something you never ever regret.  It changed all of our lives.  (It's really difficult to write about this without sounding hopelessly geeky.)

If not for Paris, none of us would have thought it possible for our daughters to spend the year between High School and College studying art in Florence Italy....but they did.

If not for Paris we wouldn't have visited some of the greatest museums in the world, which inspired all four of us to pursue our passion for art. 

Proof that Braxton is a truly silly guy.

If not for Paris, those six days in 2002 would not be so clearly etched in our minds.  It's true, once you've been, you'll always have Paris.

This has been a truly fun week immersing ourselves in Moulin Rouge! and remembering Paris.  Join us next week when we introduce a new muse.

Have a beautiful weekend.

YANCEY