“The sweetest oui I ever heard”

The proposal (“le proposition” in French) took place during a trip to southern France in the spring of 2011.  We rented a villa with georgous views in the charming village of Plan de la Tour, located about 15 km from the coastal city of St. Tropez.  I kept the ring in my pocket for three days, waiting for just the right moment. This was more challenging than I imagined, since southern France delivered what seemed like countless right moments. We eventually stumbled upon a quaint winery with breathtaking views of the ocean. We were the only visitors and found the staff outside bottling the latest release. The owner graciously gave us a taste of her wines and then invited us to enjoy a seating area that overlooked the vineyard and surrounding landscape. I told Lauren I wanted to take some photos of her and after snapping a few pictures, I mounted two cameras on small tripods and discretely set them to record video. Of course, I was nervous, and when the time came, I aborted the first take, fumbled my lines, got down on the wrong knee and forgot to place the ring on her finger. In other words, it was perfect.

Shortly after leaving the winery I pulled to the side of the road and gave Lauren a newly engraved dog tag that had my dog’s name on one side and both of our phone numbers on the other. S’bu has a new mom.

~Paul

Our villa in southern France

The view from our window

Lauren just before the proposal

Moments before Paul got down on one knee

Our seaside lunch in Cannes after the proposal