C'est la vie in Paris

The past few weeks have been spent right here in Paris. June is a busy time for Lyle with "quarter-end" and that means long hours, long days. That does not leave me bored......how can anyone be bored in this beautiful city?

I see every day as an opportunity to explore, to learn, and to....yes....even try to give back in some small way. After finding a few books at the used-book store (found an English one), I have been enjoying reading about French history through the eyes of a traveler going throught time from the Roman towns in the south of France, through the Middle Age castles, to the Renaissance and royalty in the chateaus. It has been fascinating and I find myself staying up late at night, reading about the sometimes brutal and bizarre history of this country. It is fascinating and I have renewed my love for history.

I have also been taking French lessons with a 33-year old "homme" who comes three times a week to give me private lessons. (Lyle has, so far, opted out of this "opportunity"!) I am learning lots of vocabulary and can read and understand quite a bit now....but speaking it and hearing it is another story. It is very frustrating! He is very patient with me, but ce n'est facile d'apprendre francais! I am still very shy about speaking it but hope that my confidence will come someday. Sebastian, my tutor, just returned from Guatemala where he taught French, so sometimes we revert to Spanish as a common ground.

There are a number of churches here in Paris that take turns providing a free lunch to about 60 people every Friday at the American Cathedral. I have walked across the Seine and joined with about 15 others a few times to help out with making and serving a wonderful 3-course meal to the homeless and elderly. Through doing this, I have met some wonderful, giving, people from a variety of walks of life....some here for many years, others here just for a few months. It is all very-well organized and is something I am going to try and make an effort to do regularly.

We walk a lot here and don't miss having a car.....and certainly not paying at the pump. We hear that gas is over $4.00 a gallon in the U.S. now, but here it is over $11.00 equivalent. There have been many strikes over the price of fuel and European countries want the gasoline taxes lowered. That's partly why those ambulance drivers were so mad! Needless to say, there aren't a whole lot of SUV's here, not even small ones. Which driver of these two is more happy these days?

Lyle tells me we are getting one of these Smart Cars when we move back. Notice how they fit into ANY parking space!

And one Sunday afternoon (while Lyle was busy working), I went to the beach. In Paris? Yep...they carted in a few thousand tons of sand to spread on the Champs de Mars in front of the Eiffel for a volleyball tournament! There were teams from all over the world that played in their bikinis all week. The weather was perfect and I pretended I was in California.......

......and although the closing ceremonies were all in French, I knew that the American teams had won, both the women and men. They played the Star Spangled Banner to kind of a subdued crowd....

This past weekend, looking for something DIFFERENT to do, we decided to try a jazz club. Paris is said to be second only to New York in the number of jazz clubs, and Paris does love their jazz. There are all kinds of places to try, and we experienced two that were very different. We found one down the block which was in the basement (cave) of a small cafe, where a couple sang and played piano and drums. They sang lots of oldies (American songs) and it was a small, intimate (and romantic) evening.......

Saturday night was a different story. Our friends, Stephen and Frances, joined us at a well-known jazz club in the San Michel area. We had dinner and then enjoyed the show, again in a "cave", but this time a 10-piece band played Dixie New Orleans-type music. It was so much fun and they were so good, I bought their CD. I told Lyle if I heard that music every morning, I might wake up before 8 a.m......

We keep busy here....there is so much to do and see! Paris is a magical city....as someone I know stated...."it's like being in giant park with museums, trees, and places to eat!" And now....the eiffel tower is bathed in blue with gold stars because President Sarkozy is head of the European Union. Even though we can enjoy this beautiful scene from our window, we walked over to the other side to take some close-up pictures from ground level.......

.....the twinkling lights against the brilliantly blue tower is quite a sight to see!