"If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast."
Ernest Hemingway
Our holidays included much moving and feasting, but I'll just share the highlights here.
1. Meeting Dr's friend Mike W. and Laurie and son (Photos above and below by Jacqui)
If you're reading this blog, then you know I want all of my friends to be friends -- and I'm not just talking facebook. Jeff was subjected to this early on when he met me for a date, and there were a dozen other people there. Two happened to be associates at the law firm where he'd just caused a major scandal. Oops.
I've learned (really!) that just because I enjoy spending time with B as well as C that it doesn't follow that B and C will necessarily enjoy spending time together. But it's a great thing when it works out that way. With Mike and Laurie, it worked out that way.
2. Running through Paris with Luke.
Am not much of a runner, never have been. But when Luke suggested that we go for a run one morning, I put on my track shoes and followed. I'm a convert. (Photo by Esme)
3. Walking in the rain to the novelty shop by the Centre Pompidou with Dr.
4. Christmas shopping with Jacqui while Jeff
and Dr took the kids for a walk along the elevated
Promenade Plantee.
(Photo by Esme)
5. Dinner at the bistro on the corner of the Place des Vosges.
6. Traveling by train to and from Paris. I love the train -- a good place to think, a rollicking limbo where there's not much to do but look out the window... read your Kindle, check your Blackberry, surf the Ipad. And, yes, they serve wine.
7. Decorating our Christmas Tree
8. Christmas Eve at Michelle's
We went, we drank splendid champagne, we ate delicious fois gras.
9. Christmas Morning
10. The arrival of Laura H, Jake & Olivia
Luke, Esme, Adri and I headed to Nice to meet them. I circled the terminals twice, then three times before conceding I'd have to park the car. (To be fair, I've only been through this routine about 20 times so far this year.) And there they were! "People must have thought we were celebrities," Laura H. remarked about the exuberant shrieks that accompanied the reunion. Either that or an attack of wailing banshees...
11. Cap D'Antibes
12. Matisse Chapel in Vence
Matisse called the chapel his "masterpiece." Peace and beauty reside in those walls.
14. New Year's Eve Day Lunch
We hadn't had much luck with restaurants between a few being closed when we wanted to go, and another actually refusing to permit Charlie to dine with us. (The only restaurant I've encountered in all of France that wouldn't allow dogs, by the way.)
We planned to go to our favorite bistro in Mouans-Sartoux, but when we arrived, they didn't have the tables configured the way we wanted. Despite my initial dismay, we ended up having a lovely girls' lunch, and they enjoyed their boys' lunch.
A good way to end 2010. Not a bad year.
No comments:
Post a Comment