Three Special Families

The best part of our trip to Europe was connecting with three families involved with student exchanges. In 1973-74 Nancy lived as an exchange student in Drammen, Norway (near Oslo). Below is Nancy skiing in the mountains of Norway that winter, from a scrapbook that her host siblings pulled out during our visit:

We spent time with all three of Nancy's host siblings—Gunn, Else and Nils:

Four years ago we hosted Marion as an exchange student from Bondues, France (near Lille). Below is Marion with Laura and Emily in Paris during our visit:

In the photo above you can see the Obelisk and the Arc de Triomphe in the distance.

We stayed with Marion's parents, Carole and Thierry, during our visit to France:

The above photo was taken in L'Hermitage Gantois in Lille, where we had dinner to celebrate Marion's birthday. This hotel opened in 2003, in a set of buildings that had been a hospital and hospice from 1462 to 1995.

And, of course, the reason for taking our trip at this time was to visit Laura who is presently studying in Copenhagen and living with a host family. On our first day they treated us to a wonderful brunch:

Laura's host sister Stine is in the photo above. Below are her host parents, Brian and Nina:

In the photo above the building in the background is the Copenhagen Opera House.

All three families entertained us in grand style. We extend our grateful thanks to all of them for their wonderful hospitality and the time that they took out of their busy schedules to show us their part of the world.

For the record, the student exchange programs were AFS (Nancy), Rotary (Marion) and DIS (Laura).

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