While looking for a home exchange during a bicycle trip along the Rhone River, Marion resident Joan Hartnett-Barry got something better, a friendship with a French family.

The Ollive family in Aix-en-Provence – parents, Bernard and Edith, and their three kids – agreed to host Hartnett-Barry and even greeted her with a handful of heather and a sign with her name on it at the train station. Now Hartnett-Barry wants to return the favor by finding a local family with a daughter willing to host the 13-year-old Alexis in June 2017 for a few weeks in exchange for a few weeks visiting a “classic French home.”

The older kids have done several international exchanges, including trips to Texas, Scotland and New Zealand.

In addition to showing Alexis around the South Coast, a tri-town girl around Alexis' age would get to experience life with the Ollives. Hartnett-Barry described her own time with the family as a quintessential French affair. The home has a “pond, swimming pool, apricot tress, roses and jasmine tumbling over old stone walls,” she said.

During her stay, they dined outdoors on “fresh vegetables and fruit from their garden and trees, cheeses, breads, casseroles and sausages cooked on a small charcoal grill.”

Local families may also find a kinship in the fact that the French family enjoys sailing. Bernard is a boat pilot in nearby Marseilles and Edith is a boat captain who currently stays at home with the kids. The family recently purchased a boat in Spain and plan to sail it back to Marseilles.

After her experience in Aix-en-Provence, Hartnett-Barry has only good things to say about the Ollives and hopes a local family will step up for the cultural exchange.

“This is a terrific opportunity for a tri-town girl to experience a short exchange during a beautiful time of year in a spectacular area of France,” she said.

If interested in learning more, contact Joan Hartnett-Barry at jhbarry1@verizon.net or call 508-748-0027.