photos from the olden days

Don’t you love how your kids think that any time before they were born is the olden days. Well mine do. We managed to catch the end of Sense & Sensibility on TV this week. As one of the sisters was in bed fighting a fever, I explained to keira that this was before they had panadol and nurofen. I should have known what was going to come. Mummy, in the olden days when you were little did they have panadol. Yes Keira, this movie is set a long time before mummy was born and I was only born in the 70’s. We had panadol.

Anyway my little ones are going to think these photos are from the olden days. Retro daddy found a camera card in his wardrobe this week and we had no idea what was on it. I got excited because I wondered if there were pictures of us before we got married.

Most of the photos we took when we were travelling and lived overseas are in albums so I had no idea what was on this card. Well turns out the card was from 2003 when retro daddy worked in paris, I worked in london and we were keeping the long distance thing going.

For those who don’t know we met in the most romantic way possible. On a Contiki bus trip through Europe in 2001. I was off to england on a career break like a lot of the people my age in the office with a contiki trip through italy, france and spain and retro daddy was off to do a management course in the south of france with a contiki trip with his footy club mates before the course. And the rest is history. Meant to be.

This was his apartment building in Paris. He lived on avenue Victor Hugo in the 16th which was very upmarket. His street and the area not his apartment. We’d pass all the big name boutiques to get to his work or the main shops but he lived in a tiny little flat that we dubbed the ice box as it was so cold. This was the view looking back from his door and he had those cream metal shutters on his windows.

And here I am in Dublin on one of our many weekends away. We loved to just walk the streets of any city and go exploring until it was time to eat or drink. And we hope that one day when all of our little ones are of a good travelling age and we have enough money to pay for us all that we can all go over as a family and see Europe together.

Do you love finding old photographs? Do your kids also think that you were alive in the olden days? Now I have a sudden urge to find more photos. One big job that I’d love to do is grab all of the slides my Dad has of when we were growing up. So many slides just waiting for one big slide night.

Comments

  1. Oh Corrie I love these photos! I was very lucky as a child that my parents took us to the US (for the Atlanta Olympics) and Canada and a lot of south east Asia but I’ve never been to Europe. My husband’s family did the opposite and took their family to Europe, so now I want to go to Europe and he wants to go to America! You haven’t changed A BIT! I would think that photo was taken yesterday of you!
    Recently I have been scanning my mother-in-law’s slides for her to turn them digital, as I have a scanner that is capable of passing light through both sides (which I bought for uni when I took all slide film, yes the olden days, 2005-2007?!) Lots of other family members have asked me to scan their old slides for them too, and I’m thinking of offering it as an extra service now to my photography business. After I’d scanned all the slides we had a ‘slide night’ by just popping a USB into the TV! Olden days made tech savvy.

  2. Yes you need to offer that service! I mean if we so many slides then other families must have the same too and it just kills me that all these memories and photos are sitting in the hall cupboard at my dad’s house!!!!!!!!!!

  3. Oh some of my very favorite memories are from the two Contiki trips I took as a young ‘en!! (a year after you, we just missed one another) I easily can see how the setting of your wonderful trip was all the backdrop you needed to get together :)

  4. Aaaahhhhh 2001, the year I moved to France to live in the Alps! Oh I do love that country! Such wonderful memories and your photos have successfully stirred my longing to return (now with two kids and husband in tow!). Thanks for the retrospective!!

  5. Goodmoring Corrie what beautiful photos to wake up to on my Birthday! I was on a Contiki in 2001 as well it was my dream to go to Paris and it came true such a beautiful city! How romantic how you met retro daddy! Thank you for sharing just lovely, it’s brought back many happy memories I hope to one day be able to go with my family to Europe here’s hoping our wishes come true!

  6. Oh Corrie all just meant to be…your photos are beautiful….Here’s to a Happy 2014 to you and your family!

  7. My kids once asked me if the dinosaurs were still around when I was little! Lovely photos and what a lovely way to bring back all those memories.

  8. Those photos of Paris in the snow are so beautifully romantic – particularly that fourth one. I’d pay good money for a copy of that large enough for an acrylic wall print, assuming the photo has enough pixels for such a thing, you might have a money-spinner there. :)

  9. I met my hubby on a tour as well…but in New Zealand. My best friend did the same. Must be a popular way to meet :)

  10. Joanna Glanville says:

    Great story, i did a contiki in 88. I spent 10 months in uk working and travelling in europe. It was the best thing i did.
    My son is in UK now, he is at Victoria Station right now waiting for the bus back to my mums, he has just spent a couple of weeks in Barcelona, Paris & Amsterdam. He did a contiki for 3 weeks before christmas and loved europe so much he wanted to go back again before he comes home to tassie.
    Travel is such a great life experience for everyone isnt it.

    have a lovely weekend.

  11. You look beautiful! We’d love to travel through Europe too, though I think it will be when our children are grown up!

  12. I love these photos – Corrie – five children later you look remarkably different. Impressive! I can’t say the same for myself after three. As a family we met in Europe one Christmas when my husband was posted for a year to Ethiopia. I remember the light dusting of snow in Paris and explored it with three kids – two of whom who were more impressed by the crepes than the Louvre. The other one loved the museum and we spent hours together exploring it… especially the Egyptian and Napoleon areas. And my kids… they thought for years that the dinosaurs and I lived at the same time and wondered how I survived without being consumed!!

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