Dreams of spring, France

What’s great about March is the fact that spring break (or if you don’t have kids in school any­more, just spring itself), is vis­i­ble on the dis­tant hori­zon. No, it’s not a mirage, it really is com­ing and we will soon be able to tuck another win­ter away on the shelf and safely unfold our thoughts of revi­tal­iz­ing sun­shine and blos­som­ing landscapes.

This time of year makes me pine for a vaca­tion, not likely to hap­pen for awhile. That’s OK as we have become quite expert stay­ca­tion­ers, tak­ing advan­tage of all our area has to offer.

I do, how­ever, like to think of the time, about 14 years ago, when my sis­ter and I had the dream of going to France together one day. I sub­scribed to a travel e-newsletter and we began to ban­ter back and forth via email (her in New York City and I in Char­lotte, N.C.) about “Paris in the spring” — maybe a mid-life crises trip. I laugh at that thought now as here I am in my 40’s and I’m chang­ing dia­pers! But, I digress … I found a trip that was a vol­un­teer vaca­tion — which is quite eco-fashionable now. This trip was in the south of France and involved help­ing rebuild medieval hill­top cas­tles and struc­tures with tour­ing the area on the side. With a vol­un­teer vaca­tion, you pay to go, but it is pretty inex­pen­sive because you are work­ing while you’re there. I sent the arti­cle to my sis­ter and said I hoped this trip would still be avail­able in 10 years because it sounded per­fect. Her email back said sim­ply, “Why wait?”

We saved and plot­ted and planned for the next 18 months and took off for Paris in spring of 2000 just before Easter. Just out­side of Avi­gnon, La Sabra­nenque, founded in 1969, is located in the quiet hill­top vil­lage of St. Vic­tor La Coste and has become a leader in restora­tion projects in the Mediter­ranean. Back then our whole trip (flight, meals and spend­ing money included), cost less than $1,500 — and we tacked on a long week­end in Paris. We worked our tails off with vol­un­teers and staff from around the world, but had more fun and got to see so much, includ­ing the olive groves, vine­yards and small vil­lages dot­ting the south of France. I savored every hard-earned meal and enjoyed know­ing there is a stone arch in a vil­lage in Provence that I helped repair.

I looked up the costs of the pro­gram now and it remains low — about $330 for the week at La Sabra­nenque; so with flight and meals it would be roughly the same, depend­ing on the air­line. You must be older than 18 years of age, be phys­i­cally fit and have insur­ance. To learn more, visit lasabrenenque.com.

Maybe a vol­un­teer vaca­tion is right for you and your fam­ily. There are many of them state-side as well as around the world. Find out more online or at the library. Two kids and lots of life changes later, I am so glad my sis­ter and I decided to take advan­tage of this oppor­tu­nity when we did. As my sis­ter said, “Why wait?”

Tues­day Trip­pier lives in Delaware, is a writer and mother of four with a spe­cial inter­est in green living.

Posted by Tuesday Trippier on Feb 26 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.