Who we are
Hello, I’m Marie-Claire. A graduate of the Faculty of Letters at the University of Geneva, I handle the content and updates of the platform. He is Jérôme, an IT engineer responsible for supervising all technical aspects. Partners in life as well as in work, happy parents of a 7-year-old boy, we form the dynamic duo behind Lisboa Events. In this article, we tell you everything about the genesis of our online agenda for kids.
Moving to Bali
At the end of 2020, my partner and I felt the urge for a radical change in life. We knew everything about Geneva (and Switzerland), where we had been settled for many years; drawn by the digital nomad life, eager to offer our son an opening to the world, we aspired to explore new horizons. Our choice fell on Indonesia and more precisely Bali, an island we fell in love with during a trip before the birth of our son, both for its idyllic landscapes and its food and culture. Our son had been accepted into an incredible school in Ubud, a school open to the jungle where he would have learned Indonesian, English, practiced yoga, and spent recess playing with snakes and climbing coconut trees, in perfect harmony with nature. Plane tickets were purchased and the lease of our apartment terminated. We were all set for the great adventure!
One letter short…
In June 2021, 15 days before our departure, the news we dreaded came: borders closed! It’s downright crazy to undertake this project in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, I agree. No more apartment, no more kindergarten… Despite the discouragement, we had to bounce back, and quickly! We obviously had to stay in Europe, ideally not too far from Switzerland in case we had to return urgently due to another stroke of bad luck. At that time, Portugal already appealed to us, but we preferred to opt for Italy, whose immediate proximity to Switzerland and my knowledge of the language seemed like definite assets. At the beginning of summer, we headed to Puglia, with our whole life in the trunk of our Honda Jazz Hybrid! We settled in Bari for a few months, forced to change Airbnb every two weeks — not easy to find accommodation in the middle of the summer season! Our destination was supposed to be Bali, but we ended up in Bari. Looking back, we joke that our dream came true just one letter short… The summer was spent between work — thanks to the help of the fantastic nanny we found there — and relaxation, at the beach and discovering the natural wonders of Puglia. In early October, as it began to get cooler and we would soon no longer be able to enjoy the beach, we couldn’t see ourselves staying there. Puglia is beautiful, that’s undeniable, but we were missing a cultural component that was essential to us in the long run.
Risky bet
Portugal quickly came back into the picture, with Lisbon as the intended destination. I had never been there, my partner only knew the city of Porto, discovered during a weekend with friends, but several people had spoken highly of the Portuguese capital: sunshine, beaches, breathtaking landscapes, numerous green spaces, kids friendly, dynamic culture, welcoming population. We arrived in Lisbon, in early November 2021, with just three suitcases in a risky bet. At the same time, everything is a bit crazy in this story… We had been in Lisbon for two weeks already when we realized we wouldn’t regret our choice.
What to do with my kid?
As a mother of a very active little boy, I quickly started looking for children’s activities. I was immediately amazed by the richness of the cultural offer of the City of Lisbon. I also quickly noticed, however, that it could be difficult to find information or that one had to navigate between several websites or subscribe to a multitude of newsletters to have a comprehensive overview of the available offer. This remained just an observation for a long time…
On September 23, 2023, we were walking as a family in Belém when we saw the old trams of the Carris fleet passing by. All the families on board, with smiles on their faces, waved to us. My partner and I looked at each other, as if to question ourselves: “But why aren’t we aware of this event?” Maybe I hadn’t checked the cultural agenda of the City of Lisbon at the right time… Maybe I should have subscribed to the newsletter of the Museu da Carris… Since then, I’ve seen that communication mainly happens on buses and trams, makes sense! But if like me you rarely or never use public transport, there’s a good chance you also missed the event.
Lisboa Events
It was at this moment that we had the idea to create Lisboa Events, a platform that would allow parents to have access in one place to all the events available for children. Beyond highlighting the incredible richness of the cultural offer for children in Lisbon and its surroundings, we aim with Lisboa Events to:
- encourage and promote culture among children;
- help parents plan their weekends/free time/family vacations;
- help working parents for whom school holidays pose a considerable challenge find holiday camps;
- give visibility to the hard and amazing work of both cultural institutions and independents in the arts sector.
Today, the pandemic is behind us, we could move to Bali. But we are well here, in this city that has become our adopted land, and we plan on staying. Because we feel that Lisbon still has many things to offer to us!
