A love story, a slightly altered itinerary and the smallest new traveler on the Floofy Newfie World Tour.

I thought the story of Provence was finished.

Tony had become Antonio. Antonio had painted Ooset among the lavender. There had been a picnic, a first kiss and five handwritten pages declaring that their summer romance was very far from over.

It was already considerably more complicated than anything I had planned.

Then another card arrived from Katharine.

Inside was her latest dispatch from Aix-en-Provence—and the news that Ooset had not returned from her romantic adventure alone.

An Instant Family, Just Add Water

Her name was Meret.

She was two months old, the very image of Ooset and apparently already traveling with more luggage than most puppies acquire in a lifetime.

Ooset has fallen in love with an artist she met in Paris, run off, adopted a baby and come home with both in tow and is now announcing they’re going to find their own apartment and live off his nearly invisible income.

He seems like a sweet boy. We’ve met his parents and they’re every bit as bemused as we are. One minute it’s a fine summer romance and the next minute we’re setting up housekeeping - with an instant family, just add water and bake for one hour. Ta da!

Oh, But She Has Your Eyes, My Love

Her name was Meret. She was two months old, very fluffy and, according to Katharine, the veriest image of Ooset.

Tony was completely smitten.

“Oh, but she has your eyes, my love,” he kept telling Ooset—while apparently choosing not to notice Meret’s razor-sharp teeth or what they might mean for his nearly invisible income.

Meret, meanwhile, looked up at him as though the matter had already been settled.

Antonio had found his muse in Provence.

Now, quite unexpectedly, he had found his family too.

Sugar and spice and everything nice.

Very Little Crying. Lots of Teeth.

Fortunately for everyone, Katharine reported that Meret was an easy baby.

There was very little crying. There were, however, a great many razor-sharp teeth—a detail Tony tended to gloss over whenever he compared Meret to his beloved Ooset.

At two months old, she had already acquired a pink beret, a place on the Floofy Newfie World Tour and two thoroughly unprepared parents.

All she needed now was a PawsPort.

The Tour Goes On

Katharine and Stephen had already begun the adoption process. The young lovers may have imagined an apartment of their own, but Katharine had put her foot down: part of being a parent was putting the baby first.

By the end of September, the family would travel on to Romania and, eventually, Halloween in Transylvania. Tony was welcome to join them, although Katharine suspected his devotion to his mother—and his unfinished studies—would eventually call him home.

What came next remained uncertain.

But beneath the old plum tree, Ooset and Meret sat side by side, the family resemblance impossible to miss.

Provence had given Ooset a love story.

It had also given her a lifetime responsibility—and the Floofy Newfie World Tour its smallest traveler yet.

It Began in the Lavender

Before the baby, the luggage and the increasingly complicated travel arrangements, there was an aspiring artist with one final assignment:

Go into the world and paint something beautiful.

Then Antonio saw Ooset walking through the lavender.

Return to Provence to discover how a painting became a love letter—and one fine summer romance became an instant family.

Read the Provence Love Story

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Provence Had One More Surprise

A love story, a slightly altered itinerary and the smallest new traveler on the Floofy Newfie World Tour.

An Instant Family, Just Add Water

Oh, But She Has Your Eyes, My Love

Very Little Crying. Lots of Teeth.

The Tour Goes On

It Began in the Lavender

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