My Happy Place.

We all have that happy place. That place we go to in our mind when unhappy, anxious or stressed. I quite often visit my happy place when I have the dreaded trip to the dentist! As you know I have recently just returned from my holiday and the place we visit is my happy place. I suppose that I have two happy places if I'm honest. Bali  is one, the place we spent our honeymoon, that once in a lifetime trip unlikely to ever be repeated again. Yes it holds many wonderful memories but isn't truly my happy place. 

My true happy place is the South of France. Particularly the Dordogne where we return to year after year. We have truly made so many memories there that whenever I need to put myself in my happy place this is where I go. 

I got the love for this place a fair few years ago when my (now) husband took me there on one of our first holidays together. I fell in love with the scenery, the weather, the atmosphere and the food and of course the wine. I think because of this he knew that this would be the ideal place to propose to me back in 2009!

I remember the day so well. I hadn't been feeling particularly well over a couple of days, can't remember why but just remember that I'd spent a few hours in bed sleeping and Adi kept asking me if I was ok and would we be able to go out for dinner on the evening. 

I had been wanting to get engaged for so, so long. We'd been together for nearly 9 years and I did wonder if we would ever get married and I admit, at times I would get so upset that he hadn't popped the question. I remember worrying that perhaps he just didn't want to fully commit to me!

So I remember getting ready for our evening out together and not getting dressed up a massive amount, I still clearly remember Adi asking me if that was what I was wearing with a look of shock on his face as I was really quite dressed down! I remember getting changed into something a little more dressy and it didn't occur to me once that he was going to propose that evening. 

We had a lovely meal and he knew my wishes that I would have hated to be proposed to in a restaurant so it didn't happen there (thank god). Instead, afterwards we walked along the beautiful cobbled streets and he pulled me to a stop and got down on one knee and produced a ring (nawwww)! I genuinely thought it was a joke and was telling him to get up, until I saw that actually the ring was real and this was happening. *Cue floods of tears and hysterical behaviour*........obviously I said yes!

He had chosen me the perfect ring and proposed in the most perfect way, I spent the rest of our holiday on cloud nine, I was over the moon. 

From that day on the Dordgone, particularly Sarlat hold a special place in my heart and always will. I've also been fortunate enough to share some great holidays with close friends there too which makes the memories even more special, this makes it my happy place. 

I dream that one day we may actually live there. I would love that. I have this dream/wish that we buy a gite and run a small complex of holiday homes and spend the rest of our life there together, enjoying everything that this lovely part of France can offer. We'd sit by the river, we'd take walks in the fields and drink enough wine that we'd probably need to buy our own vineyard. It's very unlikely to happen, we don't speak the language (although we could learn), we don't have the finance's (at the moment) and would it be fair to uproot our children for our own dream? I just wonder whether our quality of life would be so much better, who knows.

Well one can dream, yes??

So tell me, where is your happy place?