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Article and photographs by my daughter Sarah Reese. Sarah has been living in Paris pursuing a career in film. In the second part of this article she will share a trailer of her film "Making Of" which follows the lives of a group of young film-makers in Paris. If you are not "subscribed" to this blog, it would be best to click on "sign me up" so that you don't miss this uplifting story of love, perseverance and hard work.

My love affair with France began when I was eight. I was in the back of my family’s rental car with my younger brother singing at the top of our lungs to the Spice Girls album Wannabe which had just shot straight to the top of the pop charts worldwide. We made up hand actions, giggled, and played happily with the plastic penguins we’d just got free with our Kinda Surprise eggs. The French countryside flashed past our eyes and straight into our hearts. There was no going back – we became part of France and France became part of us.

It wasn’t just France I fell in love with though. It was the smells, the sounds, the colours and the images that enveloped us. It was like stepping into the depths of an Impressionist painting – a world swirling with textures and colours. I think it really began there – my eye for colour and my undying love for images. It all started there.

In the South, I remember the way the cool autumn breeze gracefully caressed the rows of lavender at our friends’ idyllic farm. In Brittany I remember watching the pork sausages cook on an open fire in a local restaurant ready to feed our hungry mouths. In Paris, I remember looking at the worn cobblestones in front of the Notre Dame and wondering just how many people had stepped on them over time. Lots, I guessed. I also remember watching the countless number of cars circulate around the Arc de Triomphe thinking, “By Joes I hope they’ve got insurance.”

It all started there. The images of an eight year old, the fragile treasures of childhood. It was the beginning, the beginning of my personal movie theatre.
Little did I know, a mere thirteen years down the track I’d be living in France, living the dream, falling in love, and planting the seeds for a career in the cinema. With a Panasonic handycam to document it all.

END OF PART ONE