Simon and Robin met while traveling separately in Tokyo, Japan in June, 2018.

Sometime around 1 in the morning, Simon, Clement and Cedric walked into a nearly empty bar to see Robin, (and lifelong friends) Kelly and Jessi, The three Frenchmen ordered beers and sat on the other side of the bar.

Jessi turned to Robin observing that the group was French, and as the main French speaker of the group, Robin should go over and say hello. She was finally convinced and walked over to introduce herself and her friends.

Robin lived in Brussels at the time and was surprised to hear that Simon and his friends were all from Lille, which was only a 35 train-ride from Brussels.

The Franco-American groups saw each other intermittently over the next 2 weeks of their respective trips with longer and longer facebook messages being exchanged between Robin and Simon.

Robin left back to Brussels and Simon continued six more weeks travelling in Japan, with the two exchanging texts and voice messages every day.

When Simon got back to France at the end of July, Robin took that 35 minute train down to Lille and the rest was history.

Robin and Simon spent 2 years doing long distance between Brussels and Lille (not hard), until Robin got a job offer in The Hague, Netherlands (much harder). COVID intervened and Simon spent six months with Robin in The Hague, during which time they established that they could live together, and that (for Simon) the Netherlands was actually a pretty nice place to live.

In October of 2022, Simon relocated to the Hague, and in February 2023, proposed to Robin, with his mother's engagement ring.

Robin and Simon have gotten married a few times in a few countries: The Hague, Netherlands in early September 2023 for the legal ceremony, Valenciennes France for a symbolic ceremony, and now are looking forward to celebrating with US friends and family once more!