Lunch with an actress

The past few days, Lyle has been away to Brussels and Amsterdam. Not wanting to sit around by myself, I was glad when I was invited to join a group that goes on tours once or twice a month to various sites in and around Paris. I learned about the group at the coffee group from the church and jumped at a chance to join in! The group was to meet at the Orleans station on the south edge of Paris at 8:30 this morning, so I set out an hour earlier, not knowing how long I would have to ride the metros. I should have realized.....the Paris metro is quick and usually efficient.....I arrived in 20 minutes!

About 30 of us hopped on a bus and headed for Villenneuve sur Yonnne, a small village in Burgundy about two hours southeast of Paris. What a delightful little town! This is where we met Leslie Caron, the actress who danced into people's hearts in the 1950's with Gene Kelley, Fred Astaire, and Cary Grant (Gigi, An American in Paris, Father Goose to name a few). She also won an emmy last year for Law and Order, so this vibrant lady certainly hasn't retired! Wanting to return to the France that she loved, she decided to restore an old boathouse on the river and turn it into a quaint bed and breakfast with a first class restaurant. She met us and sat at each of our tables and talked about the history of the building and the town. We had an exquisite lunch complete with champagne and dessert, and she graciously posed for pictures with those who dared to ask (I did). Afterwards, the former mayor of the town (and now researcher and teacher) took us on a tour of the old church and gave us a history of how and when it was built over 600 years ago.

We left around 4:00, some of us with bags of cheese, wine, and other little gifts from the market, and headed back to Paris. I was home before Lyle....in fact it is after 9 pm and he STILL isn't home!!!