And the winner is.... ME!?

This time last year I was wandering the streets of Paris.  As I've written a number of times, it was one place high on my bucket list that I wanted to tick off.  I worked pretty hard to make it work - somehow!   I didn't know at the time but my body was in the midst of being taken over by an autoimmune illness, perhaps the reason why I didn't see any of the magic city past 8pm.  Apart from late night cocktails at Opera Bar at Crillon Hotel.  In my experience, every stereotype of Paris was a myth - Paris was clean and beautiful, people were not uptight or snooty and if I made a little effort to speak French, they all made effort to speak English.  The high end stores were a delight - I encountered the loveliest sales assistants from Chanel to Hermes to Maje and everything in between.  And I still drool at the thought of the Raspberry Tart at Laduree.

You can read my posts from that trip HERE.

There were plenty of things left that I hadn't had a chance to see.  I never made it to Versailles and most of the museums went unvisited.

Yesterday, unlike most Melbournians, I headed to work, leaving my phone in my car by mistake.  When I finally got around check it late last night, I had a bunch of missed from a mobile number I didn't recognise and just as I picked it up the number rang again.

Rewind to last Saturday as B and I were enjoying breakfast and papers at our favourite cafe and I had sent my details, entering a competition thinking that surely nobody ever wins those things, let alone ME!?!?!

Well I got the shock of my life last night when the lovely Laura from the Melbourne French Festival - Paris to Provence called me to say I'D WON A TRIP TO FRANCE!

I have no idea how or when this will all take place (maybe for my next birthday???) and where do I want to go?  Paris?  A farmhouse or chateaux?  Maybe I'll offer my house for a house swap and hope there's somebody that wants to spend time in Melbourne whilst I'm in France.  MIND IS BLOWN!

Either way, I am so fortunate and so privileged to have won.  Maybe my luck will continue today with a win at the races (Mount Athos?) and the $100mil lotto draw.. (I do promise to share and be generous!)

WOW!