How Travel Made Me Brave

I was sixteen, and the place was Aix-En-Provence. My mom had a work assignment there, and so I accompanied her to this southern French town with its cobblestone streets and ornate fountains. It was the middle of June, and the air smelled like lavender. Lavender fields surround Aix-En-Provence, and during this time of year, the air is saturated with the smell. Its perfume floats on every spring breeze.

We stayed at a hotel near the center of town, and each day, my mom would leave in the morning to teach. I used these empty days to wander the cobblestone streets and peruse the shops, peeking in windows and finding treats from the pastry shops. It was on that trip that this picky eater first tried asparagus and suddenly, I couldn’t get enough of it.

Travel gives me a sort of bravery that I don’t always have at home. It was on that trip when suddenly travel became alive to me in a way that it hadn’t before, perhaps because I’d had my first taste of freedom – my first chance to decide my own path in a city that was foreign to me.

I experienced the butterflies from not being sure how to communicate with a stranger, to the high that comes from successfully ordering a croissant in French, to the curiosity of not knowing what was around the next corner, the nervousness at being lost and the relief at figuring out where you were at last. The sensory overload that comes with everything being new and the comfort from knowing some parts of humanity transcend culture, and language, and country.

The Beginning of the Juniper Package

Aix-En-Provence was where I stopped traveling and instead became a traveler. And, in many ways, it’s the very beginnings of the Juniper package. You know, like I do, how travel changes you because you have your own stories just like this one. I created Juniper for you, the adventure-hearted, to document your own transformative memories on video. It’s why I created my 5-day mini-course on capturing your own everyday adventures (techniques you can use to take video of your travels in your hometown or on the other side of the world). I don’t have video from that trip to Aix en Provence all those years ago, but I was able to edit a Juniper vacation film for my client Rebecca and watching her video come to life took me right back to those beautiful memories of my own.

Rebecca asked me to help her with a surprise travel video as a gift to her parents, who planned the family reunion. Rebecca did a great job (using just her iPhone!) to capture the feel of Provence perfectly. I only wish smell-o-vision was a thing so you could smell those stunning lavender fields!

It was so cool to travel along with her family. You can tell the love they have for each other, + those huge family dinners outside are so dreamy! When Rebecca shared the finished product with her parents + family, there may have been some tears shed. Here’s what she had to say:

“Our week in Provence with my family was such a special time that I will never forget. And thanks to Evergreen Lane Productions, we have this amazing travel video to remember it by. She took our hours and hours of what was mundane iPhone videos and turned it into a story of our week together that we will forever cherish.”

I’m so thankful I was able to participate in preserving these memories for Rebecca and her family!

Is someone you love headed on the trip of a lifetime? The Juniper makes a great gift.