24 Christmas Memories – 20

Welcome to day 20!

If you were here yesterday, you already know who our special Christmas elf was a couple years ago. The VVVIP was my mom, and today I want to share a couple special memories from the first part of her trip…

… starting, in a Castle!

Is this first Christmas Memory post you’re seeing?
You can get caught up by starting back on day 1 to understand this year’s theme.

Mom arrived in Paris and rather than hit the road for Chatellerault, straight from the airport (a long drive when you’ve barely slept on the overnight flight), we opted to spend the night in Melun, do a bit of sightseeing, have a relaxing meal, a good night’s sleep and then hit the road first thing the next morning after breakfast.

Vaux-le-Vicomte

Our sightseeing, took us to Vaux-le-Vicomte, a privately owned castle that outdoes itself in terms of decorations each Christmas.

The two outside photos, below, are at V-le-V… the left-most photo reminds you of an image taken directly out of a Victorian story (click on it for a better view). The photo on the right was taken in the castle’s 2+ storied ballroom where a miniature hot-air balloon was installed amid a forest of white (fake-) snow-covered trees.

It was a nice way to start her visit.

When we eventually got back to Chatellerault, it wasn’t but a few days later that we were trimming our own tree, fresh off the inspiration of Christmas at the castle (the decoration budget is not quite the same though.)

Note that for the first time, since coming to France, we went with a full-sized tree. We picked up a decently priced and nice looking artificial tree and mom was helping me “fluff” the branches. So whenever we unpack the tree for a new Christmas season, we think of mom who was there for that first time the tree entered our house.