Let the Good Times Roll Enjoying Liberty Family and nature
By Ruth Ann Ruiz
The Post Newspaper Features Editor
Born in the region of France most well-known for Champagne, she had only six months enjoying the fragrance of those teeny tiny grapes growing on vines. Then her father, an officer in the French Air Force, was transferred to another military base in the south of France, where she spent many days enjoying life as a child.
Her childhood home near Toulouse holds many fond memories for her. “In this region, the landscape is magnificent. When approaching the Pyrenees, the vegetation is a mixture of Mediterranean species and high-altitude trees. Toulouse, called the pink city because of the dominate color of the stone, is both a city of history and a city of innovation, the European capital of aeronautical and aerospace industry” shared French Consul General Valérie Baraban.
When one thinks of Southern France, visions of the Mediterranean Sea come to mind. Perhaps a child would spend days at the seashore, but no, that was not the life for Baraban. Southern France is a vast area. Her brother loved exploring the Pyrenees and fostered in her a love of mountain exploration.
Her early childhood memories of growing up within a family of five children are full of delightful times when the family lived in Toulouse. “Since that time family has mattered much to me,” said Baraban.
She was six years old when her family moved to the middle of France to a region called Auvergne. “This region has the most significant number of volcanoes in Europe, and it is an extraordinarily preserved natural park where you can take endless walks and taste delicious cheeses. Auvergne is a cheese platter!” shared Baraban.
While living in the middle of France, she continued to pursue mountain climbing and camping, a passion that her brother had instilled in her.
While just a teenage girl, she would often make a trek by bicycle with one of her girlfriends, carrying their tent and other necessities on their backs as they would camp in the mountains. As she reminisces, she confesses, “I’m a mother now and I don’t know if I would let my daughter do what I did,” expressed Baraban.
Though we often think of the youngest child as being less motivated than the oldest child in a family, Baraban defied those statistics. She was a very studious and ambitious young lady. Her attention to academics paid off when as a high school student, she passed her scientific baccalaureate with the highest honors.
As an award, the largest bookstore in her city offered a book of her choice. She chose a comprehensive encyclopedia of astronomy, which she keeps with her on all her foreign assignments.
Her favorite pastimes included reading and she surrounded herself with books to escape and learn of other places. Her extensive reading list included authors from around the world. She also surrounded herself with nature, which gave her a great sense of freedom.
Though she grew up in the nation many of us consider the romance capital of the world filled with art, music, fashion, food, and festivals, she followed her passions not those expectations set by standards outside of her soul.
“My parents instilled in me that we are the designers of our destiny. They wanted to give their children an education that allowed emancipation and founding values such as family and work. My parents gave me a lot of strength, and I am infinitely grateful to them,” explained Baraban.
She was awarded a scholarship for excellence in science and went to the École Normale Supérieure in Paris where she studied Philosophy and graduated number one in her class.
Paris held many exciting cliché moments with times at cafes such as the famous, La Brasserie de Café de la Paix. “I would just go and maybe have an expresso and sit and it didn’t matter if I had very little money. I was a queen at the cafe,” Baraban shared.
In her early twenties, she packed her backpack and along with a friend went to the Himalayas. She spent two months exploring, camping, and living under the moon, stars, and sun in the mountains she had read about in her younger years.
Her days of uninhibited exploration transformed to being a bit more restrained when she started her career. Yet her love of living freely is a value she holds dear. With wide open green eyes and an expressive face, she shares of her passionate pursuit of living freely.
America was her next adventure with a job as a teacher in French Language and Literature at the University of California in both Berkeley and Sacramento.
“I loved my time at the American universities, they are extraordinary. Libraries are open 24 hours; I did not have that in France. There are recital halls and buildings for all the subjects on one university campus. The US campuses are great, they offer a diversity of disciplines in a single location!” Baraban exclaimed.
Time in the US came to an end, and she returned to teach in France for ten years. Then she steered her path towards a career as a diplomate. With her mind set on becoming a diplomate, she passed the French Foreign Ministry exam, Quai d’Orsay.
Her first assignment was working in arms export control, which is another of those contrasts in the life of Consul General Baraban. Her background in philosophy doesn’t seem like a fit for working as one of her nation’s advisors on weapons.
“Philosophy is a preparation for thinking. It’s like gymnastics for your brain,” Baraban explained. She is a quick learner and enjoys gathering knowledge from engineers and translating the information to political leaders.
Her diplomatic assignments have included, China, NATO headquarters in Brussels and at the Elysée Palace in Paris. Houston has been her home since 2021 and she is calling upon all the knowledge she has gained throughout her life to guide her as she serves to build relationships with universities, industries, artists, and civic leaders in Texas.
Drawn to the arts of Houston, she enjoys both the Museum of Fine Arts and the Menil Museum.
With events such as rodeos and Astros games, being in the energy capital of the world plus the added joy of living in Houston, which is another of the world’s aerospace centers, Baraban is thrilled to be able to spend part of her life’s adventurous journey in Texas.
She loves her work as a diplomat and her family is her top priority, “My husband and three children move together with me. I had this image; I want everyone on the boat together, so my husband and I make the decision together regarding areas of the world we would like to live in,” explained Baraban.
She takes her consular missions very seriously, which consist of serving and protecting the French community in Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas. Counsel General Baraban feels proud to represent the country of France in TX, OK and AR under the authority of The Ambassador in Washington D.C.
The passengers on her boat might change a bit when she sets sail for her next assignment, which will be in about three years. Her oldest child is a student at Rice University, but that is part of the joy of life, watching her children grow up and find their own path.
