The Bold Soul: A Writer's Life in Paris

Well, THAT didn't take long...

... for the "Bridal Insomnia" to kick in, I mean. Last night, I absolutely could NOT get any decent amount or quality of sleep. I went to bed around 11pm, a very respectable, healthy hour. And despite Georges being next to me, throwing off his furnace-level central loving body heat, I could not get warm and comfortable for over two hours. I know this because I kept looking at the clock as it passed 23:30... 00:00 (midnight)... 1:15. Then, of course there are all the wedding details jostling around in my head. I'm about 90% sure this is the major reason I wasn't sleeping -- there is just a lot going on and I'm in hyper-drive. Because of the time difference, I am also having to make many necessary phone calls to the States in the evenings, and last night I talked to both the caterer and the French Consulate within an hour of trying to wind down to go to sleep. So that certainly didn't help my brain relax. And for some strange reason, (get ready for Too Much Information) I had to get up to pee about five times last night, way more than my usual average of... Read more →

Our week in Paradise

I have actually managed to get most of the photos uploaded to Flickr, from our week on the French Riviera. [NOTE: These are the public photos only... if you're on my friends & family list, I'll be creating a separate Flickr set for the family photos and will let you know when they're ready.] In the meantime, enjoy this look into what we did on our April vacation in the sunny south (besides deciding, officially, to get married)! Read more →

Zoo 'appy to zee you

One afternoon last week, we took the Little Guy to one of his favorite spots near Saint Raphael: the Frejus Zoological Park. Thought you might enjoy a break from all the mushy love stuff (or maybe not?) so here are a few of my favorite pix from that day: This friendly little (by elephantine standards) pachyderm enjoyed the treats we tossed to him so much that when we waved goodbye, he waved right back! Love the hair, dude! I tried to get him to smile for me, but this hippo is too hip to get excited at every camera-toting tourist who comes along. Beautiful tiger. And I was glad for the very high fence between us. Frogs and snails and prairie dog tails? These industrious little guys aren't French, though... nope, they were imported from the American southwest, just another group of tourists who came to France and then never left. Read more →

A week of nearly wedded bliss

One week ago today, my life changed forever, and so did Georges', because he asked me to marry him. Which is a very pleasant surprise -- feeling like something has changed in this way -- considering we pretty much knew we were heading in this direction after the first week of our relationship, and started actually discussing it out loud after the first month. Some people think six months is "too soon" to be planning a wedding, but when you're "of a certain age" I think you should be given some credit for knowing yourselves and what's right for you. And we've known this was a done deal for a very long time. So it's really funny how this little ritual of asking and affirming has taken our relationship to an even deeper level. There are things we are still learning about each other after "only" six months, of course. For instance, he didn't know that in my family, I'm called "Lee" instead of "Lisa", and he discovered this after listening to me call my sister to tell her the news, and saying "Hi, it's Lee". I don't even think much about it, but there are only three people on... Read more →

Market Day

I love the open air markets you will find in every city and village in France. The spice vendor's display is so colorful and smells incredible! Strawberries and white asparagus are in season! Yum! So are the local small melons which taste so much better than the big cantaloupes I was used to eating in America. And yes, it was one of these very melons that Georges "dropped" before asking me to marry him. He says this is probably the last photo I took before officially becoming a bride-to-be! Read more →

It's a hard life, but somebody's got to live it

Blue skies over the marina in Saint Tropez... parking for your big yacht is over to the right. Designer shops about two blocks over. Or perhaps you'd prefer Cannes, where the big film festival takes center stage here every May, and where you can shop at Fred and Cartier while strolling on the beach-front promenade. Not too shabby. For my money, I'd rather have something in between... a bit more secluded, with an incredible view and a pool. Read more →

Inévitable

I wasn't really planning to blog on the first day of my vacation with Georges; really, I wasn't. I mean, I do have SOME restraint and I know "vacation" means unplugging and relaxing. I was planning to do pretty much exactly what we ended up doing: Sleep in Eat breakfast Take a walk with Georges around Saint-Raphael Buy a fresh melon at the Sunday marché Take photos of some of the pretty Provençal houses in the old town See some shoes in a store window, making mental note to come back later in the week Get excited to see the Mediterranean for the first time Be amazed at the unexpected sunshine and warmer-than-we-expected temperatures Test how cold the waters are (not bad, really; no one swimming but some kids in bare feet in the shallow surf) Look at the pretty views of the beach, harbor and marina Take a walk along the waterfront promenade and enjoy all the palm trees Stop for some champagne at a beach-front terrace to celebrate Have lunch at a place on the beach with Georges, the Little Guy and his sister Come home and have a sieste like everyone else in this part of France... Read more →

Immersion

My brain is exhausted. The backs of my eyes actually hurt. I never thought being immersed almost entirely in French for three days could take it out of me like this. We went to bed early last night and I even slept late this morning to try and get some energy back, but I'm still wiped out. We had some invités for three days, French (of course) friends of Georges who used to live in Paris but who headed south to Marseilles a few years ago for a warmer climate (given the bizarre weather in Paris, one can hardly blame them for wanting to retire in the South, although Marseilles will never be Paris). Every so often they have business that brings them back north, and they stay here when they do. They are absolutely delightful, this couple. He speaks fairly good English (he says he speaks "Frenglish" and I say I speak "Franglais" so we're both pretty much in the same bateau) and she has been trying to speak more. I actually met her some months back when she was visiting, but before I lived here, and at that time she was very shy about speaking any English, so... Read more →

This message is inspired by the sadistic bastards who are in charge of currency exchange rates

I will be the first one to admit I know absolutely nothing about how one currency is valued (or devalued) against another currency. I simply don't understand it so I don't wrack my brains trying. I just try to cope with the bad news that the dollar is sinking against pretty much every other currency out there, except for the Swiss Franc and even with that we're now just breaking even. Even the Canadian dollar is beating our asses. But THIS? This is just plain P-A-I-N-F-U-L. Today I needed to transfer some bucks from my American bank over to my French bank, so as usual I checked the going exchange rate... and nearly had a stroke: 1 EUR = 1.58407 USD This means that $1,000 of my money only buys me about 630€ of goods and services here in France. And doesn't that just royally suck. God help us all, we poor (and getting poorer by the minute) ex-pat Americans. We may love living abroad and there are many good things about having this kind of life experience, but we sure are paying a high price for it right now. So my message to whomever it is out there who... Read more →

Pressée

If you've wondered why there have been no blog posts since Wednesday, the answer is: simply too damn busy. I am under significant deadlines for two different ghostwriting clients (and frankly, not making much progress), finishing up odds and ends for a third client from my web business (from which I have now officially retired but still have a few loose strings to tie up), and trying to get a fourth client to make some progress so I can wrap up his book proposal (my clients can often procrastinate better than I can). I am now taking French classes for four hours a week - that doesn't sound like much but when you add in transportation time and the fact that after the class ends at 12:30 I have to stop for lunch, I don't get home again until around 2pm on average those two days. I had my income taxes to prepare and file (and pay) this week -- ugh, but at least unlike last year I did not procrastinate and file an extension, so it's done and off my plate for another year. There have been social commitments. I have a friend in town who is visiting from... Read more →