Olive Us: Saying Goodbye

By Gabrielle.

Fair warning: this episode might make you cry.

I’ve watched it a dozen times at least and I cry every time. It’s all about saying goodbye to a place you love. We’ve all had to do it. We leave our childhood home. We move across town or across the country (or across the world). We leave summer camp. The perfect internship ends. We move on. It’s a feeling universally experienced.

Olive Us Saying Goodbye

This episode marks the last Olive Us video we’re sharing from our time in France. After this, we’ll start sharing the videos we’ve made here in Oakland (they’re good! I think you’ll like them a lot). So publishing this post feels like I’m marking the end of an era.

Some trivia numbers for those keeping track: So far, we’ve made 44 Olive Us episodes. Three of those we haven’t published publicly yet. Of those 44 episodes, 33 were filmed in France! That’s a lot of France. I feel so lucky we have such beautiful captures of our memories there. Insanely lucky.

I hope you enjoy the video. Perhaps it will have you feeling sentimental about a place you loved and left. If yes, I’d love to hear your stories! What place comes to mind when you watch the video?

P.S. — Would you like to know more about Olive Us? Here you go:

– Olive Us has a really charming Instagram stream. You should totally subscribe!
– Find the official Olive Us website here, and subscribe to the Olive Us Newsletter here.

– Find all the posts I’ve written about Olive Us — including every episode — here.
– We’ve made 44 episodes so far and collaborated with ulive on 20 of them! You can find the Olive Us page on ulive here.

28 thoughts on “Olive Us: Saying Goodbye”

  1. Thanks for the warning! It was a lovely and heartwarming episode; I especially thought the music was wonderful. I have enjoyed visiting France through Olive Us, and will miss it too. Thank you!

  2. Oh dear, yes. That was a little messy for me. My heart is always in several places at once, including France. Thank you for the courage to share your family with the world. You have enlightened my life daily for years. Je t’embrace!

  3. Every time I see a picture or video from your time in France I wonder how you ever could have left such a dreamy and magical place. However, today watching such a lovely episode all I could think was what a blessing it was to have had that time their at all!

    I’m sure you miss it but what a treasure to have these videos!

  4. Agh! You’re killing me! We are about to say good bye to our lovely little town of 16 years, as my husband has finally finished his training, and are about to finally ‘settle’ down in St. Louis. As I’ve watched our 4 kids slowly coming to terms with the move and slowly start to say good-bye, I’ve been able to hold it together. But as the end of this era nears (we won’t move till summer), I’m sure I’m going to feel the emotions I just felt watching this episode. Great episode and a good reminder for me to tell the kids to get their own little mementos and that we need to visit all of the favorite haunts one last time.

  5. Such a magical place. And so wonderful that you have Olive Us Video to help you remember and share. Did the box make it to California? Oh yeah, and that cow painting…it was great. Is that with you? Bye. Thanks for the memories.

  6. very amelie inspired – one of my favorites yet…and it resonates. With our lifestyle, it seems like we’re always saying good bye so I think this captures beautifully how nostalgic those last few days can be when we just try to hang on to all the favorite memories , but just like Olive’s box at the end, they always have a special place with us. Besides, the one upside to all the good byes is that on the flip side, there are just as many hellos.

  7. I am interested your childrens’ French. Have they been able to keep it up? Do you watch French videos, cartoons, read books in French to keep it going? We did not do very well keeping our kid’s Danish alive after we moved back after a year when they were 7 and 10. Now with the internet, one can get all the foreign TV, movies, etc which we couldn’t 20 yrs ago. Wish we had kept it up but the memories are still profound and have connected them with a world outside of here.

  8. Oh, that was divine. Saving water in that tiny bottle was such a great idea! The music was a nice accompaniment, as well. Thank you so much for sharing such a large chunk of your lives in France, Gabrielle! What sweet memories.

  9. Sweet as always…don’t know why…but makes me think of my children moving on, growing up, leaving home…starting their families.
    and for that I cry every-time. (all things we want them to do…but still…}
    Thanks for sharing

  10. I have lived a lot of places by design. 3 European countries and a bunch of US locations. The last time I saw one of my best friends he stood crying when I drove off in a cab. We both had our own families and our own lives VERY far apart to return to by then. These films are awesome. I get annoyed taking photographs and I’m overwhelmed by all of the mediums (iPhone, camera, camcorder) in our modern world, but every nice photo I get is such a treasure in time. I have some good memories in my head too.

  11. I no you gave fair warning, but I balled. Very silly given you have been in the states now almost a year, but I know how much you loved your time there in France. Makes me miss our time in Europe. Our cozy apartments, travels, eating fresh baked bread and being closer to family.

  12. Yep. That strikes right to the heart of it, doesn’t it?

    Two goodbyes have sprung to mind for me. The first was the night before my family and I hit the road to attend my wedding. I had returned home after college to work and pay down debt and had done so for a few years before the wedding, so it was, in fact my official last night in my childhood home just as a daughter. I knew that although I was only moving 20 minutes away, things would be different after that day. There was a moment when my parents, sister and I looked at each other and all started to cry. We were all so excited about the next chapter, but we needed to grieve the passing of our first chapter properly.

    The other one I was surprised about. My husband and I bought our first home, and the day after our move, I went back alone to clean our apartment and drop the keys off. As I cleaned and pondered through all the little nuances of that apartment, I found myself a floppy, sobby mess in the middle of the empty apartment. We had only lived there a year, and so many things about our apartment were so frustrating! But we had experienced so many firsts there too, and that didn’t really occur to me until moments before I would leave it forever. Silly me.

    Thanks for this video. :)

  13. We learned three days ago that we will be moving 10 hours away from my childhood home and where my children have always lived in exactly one month. My big girls, who are 7 and 5, are having a hard time. What a lovely video. I will surely show it to them tomorrow.

  14. Hi Gabrielle,

    Such a cute episode!
    Can you tell me the name of that old church ruin in the video. I visited it years ago and loved it, but have forgotten the name of it.
    Thanks,
    Maxie

  15. This short film should win an award for its beautiful representation of how we keep memories alive and what makes memories of a time and place. Just perfect. Very Proust.

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