Saturday, May 5
Welcome to my next round of visitors. I met Meg and Jason at the airport yesterday after their grand first class flight from LA. While I was waiting, I noticed a lighted map of the main Paris roads showing all the accidents and traffic jams. Since the whole peripherique was covered with bright red lights, we decided on the airport bus and RER into the city instead. An army of cranes appeared in the bus windows as we drove between terminals.
posted by Judy at 7:15 AM|link
Friday, May 4
Though most everything else at the Cognacq-Jay Museum was elaborately decorated with gold and gems, I kind of liked this simple blue porcelain cat. The museum made a good place to get away from the heavy rain of the morning, and by the time we came out, the sky had cleared. Of course after such an educational morning, Jody and I quickly hit the nearby shops to avoid slacking off those francs spent per day. Proof of purchase is this photo of Jody at the apartment showing off her new rosebud ring to our friend Joseph.
posted by Judy at 4:26 PM|link
Wednesday, May 2
Flooding has left the Seine brownish and unbecoming by day, but looking its best brightly lit up at night, like it was when I walked by on my way back from dinner with Jody.The past week's rain has inundated the roadway again, though today was finally clear and sunny. Our museum plans were deferred by a lengthy lunch at la Cloche des Halles and a stop at Dehillirin, an incredible cookware shop nearby. Note to shoppers. Le Creuset pots should perhaps not be purchased when there is still much walking to be done.
posted by Judy at 10:19 PM|link
I sent Mom and Aunt Doris off in the taxi to the airport first thing in the morning and then I went walking. When I heard the music start up in the market on rue Mouffetard I should have known it was a premonition of things to come because they were playing 'Non, Rien de Rien', an old Edith Piaff song. I had been singing it with my friend Jody, the very one who started calling hey Jud over the cubicle wall, ever since we heard it in the movie 'Nobody Loves Me' at the Mill Valley Film Festival. I knew she had arrived in Paris but we hadn't yet made plans to meet up. I kept walking, along with everyone else in Paris out for the Labor Day holiday to buy the traditional spring bouquets of Lily of the Valley from the kids who were selling them on every block. By this time I was over in the Marais and when I turned back onto the rue de Rivoli to head for home, there was Jody walking along with her Paris friends Gilles and Joseph. They were just stopping to pick up some wine and quiche for supper and invited me along to their apartment near the Bastille. So I had a lovely chance meeting and dinner and that's why I missed posting yesterday.
posted by Judy at 6:37 AM|link
Monday, April 30
On Nantucket we always take the goodbye pictures on the porch, but in Paris we sit on the couch and use the mantel as tripod. So here we are, at the end of the last day of the Mom's visit, full of good food, a little wine and all just wishing that it hadn't come to an end so soon. We've retold all the old family stories and learned a few new ones, accused and kibitzed over the Scrabble board, and walked more and farther than anyone would have thought possible. And now it's au revoir and time for everyone in the family to get ready to hear yet another story about 'when we were visting in Paris'.
posted by Judy at 2:51 PM|link
Sunday, April 29
A bright and sunny morning sent us straight to Sainte Chapelle to admire the famous stained glass windows at their best. And tonight we'll be heading back there again for a concert of Bach cello suites. In between we enjoyed lunch at a nearby tea room, specializing in strudels, called le Fourmi Ailee. We've been noticing things everywhere, especially jewelry, decorated with various kinds of bugs, so we weren't surprised to see a picture of an insect on the restaurant's card. However, I was glad I didn't look up the meaning of the name until I got home and discovered it translated to the Flying Ant. Altogether lacking that French je ne sais quoi, don't you think?
posted by Judy at 11:51 AM|link