The Bold Soul: A Writer's Life in Paris

Flashback, circa 1969

40 years ago, I would have just turned 8 years old. Our family lived in the same house in which my mother still lives now, a relatively new housing development started the year I was born and including mostly 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom ranch-style houses with a handful of 2-story colonial or Cape Cods thrown in. Most of the lots were about a half-acre in size, which meant we had a really nice-sized back yard, big enough for a vegetable garden, a swing-set and an above-ground pool. Totally 1960s living for young families just starting out. And young families were everywhere. On a late spring weekend evening, the yards would be crawling with everyone's kids going from one house to the other, yelling and playing and generally making the most of the good weather. Oftentimes, we'd have backyard barbecues, which we called "cook-outs" or just "get-togethers" with one or more of the neighbor families where all the parents and kids got along well together. And in general, we kids would already be in our pajamas before the fun began, so that the parents could relax and enjoy themselves until it was time to pack the kids off to bed. I... Read more →

Picnic moments

We took another picnic to the Buttes-Chaumont today to kick off our three-day weekend (yes, another one)... despite the fact that last week, just AFTER we had been there on our other picnic, a 1.4M-long PYTHON was found hanging around in a tree in that very park. It was humanely captured alive, and it IS a very big park so it could have been anywhere, but still I'm very glad I didn't look up into a tree and see that thing leering down at me. The Garden of Eden, it ain't, or are we Adam and Eve. This time, we took the Little Guy with us. Weather: perfect, cloudless blue skies and a nice breeze so not too hot. Still took sunblock to avoid repeat of last weekend's uneven sunburn. Also brought hats, a ball and frisbee that went unused in favor of the iPod Touch, and books to read. Lots of good things to eat and drink. A blanket and some small pillows for comfort. Ahhhh.... what a life. After lunch and a siesta, and watching four or five wedding parties walking around taking photos (the Mairie de 19ème is just across the way), the sun shifted onto our... Read more →

Traveling safe

Passing on to Bold Soul readers this article from CNN with 15 travel safety tips worth thinking about, with summer holidays nearly upon us. Pickpockets are only one security challenge when you're traveling; this article will alert you to others you may not have thought about before. Also, my favorite travel products catalog at Travel Smith offers several excellent safety-minded items, not to mention clothing that packs and hand-launders well (in plus and petite sizes, too) and much more. They offer a 100% no-questions-asked money-back guarantee. Among my current favorites: Doorstop Alarm which could come in handy if you're traveling to places where the hotel rooms might not have a deadbolt lock An array of ladies' bags with special security features like steel cables inside the straps Bags made from recycled plastic bottles, of all things! This dress, which is so damn cute that I will buy one just to wear around Paris if I can figure out a cheap way to have it sent here However, I think I could do without the Germ Finder in my hotel room. Somehow, I think I'll sleep better not knowing. Denial can be a good thing. The Fortune Teller by Georges de... Read more →

Roundabout

I seem to have discovered a rather roundabout way to expand my French vocabulary. I am teaching English to a 13-year-old girl. She's the daughter of a good friend of Georges; she is learning English in school but she seems to have been struggling with it, and her parents decided a tutor was in order. How nice that her mother thought to ask me if I'd like to help; I'd been thinking about doing some English tutoring for some time, and this is the perfect opportunity, plus the girl in question is just adorable and very eager to learn. I couldn't ask for more as a tutor! I would have expected that having this concentrated time (4 hours/week) in English would drive me further away from my goal of fluency in French, but now after just three sessions with my new étudiante, I suspect the opposite may prove to be true. We are splitting up our sessions into a combination of doing her regular, assigned English homework and reviewing her notes from her classroom work (yesterday it was Le Comparatif and Le Superlatif adjectives, as in "good, better, best" and "more difficult, most difficult, less difficult, least difficult"), and general... Read more →

L'Avantage

One consolation for finding out I am not pregnant (yet again) this month... is being able to enjoy the ritual of the spring apéro that took place in our courtyard this evening. I returned home about 8pm after spending a few hours with my new tutoring student (the young daughter of a friend of Georges who needs help with her English studies) to find our neighbors collected together in front of our maison, with nibbles and wine and beer, and of course soda and juice for the kids. Said children, about 5 or 6 of them, were enjoying the fact that there is no school for them on Wednesdays, so they got to run around in their pajamas and jackets, snatching taco chips and crackers in between chasing the gardienne's dog and each other. The super hot temperatures of yesterday gave way overnight, after a storm, to a breezy and chilly evening tonight, but no matter. Still felt like the first "block party" of the summer, à la française. And I am feeling rather mellow after a few small glasses of wine, and making plans with my one neighbor for a taste-test, soon, of my favorite Australian Shiraz that I... Read more →

Preferences

Winding down a lovely, long, and rather lazy four-day long weekend here. I smell sweet honeysuckle wafting in from our courtyard on the cool evening air, a welcome change from the summer-hot temperatures in Paris today (not that I'm really complaining, mind you). We had a "Swiss dinner" tonight, meaning we had breakfast for dinner with pancakes, bacon and eggs. I am tired and mellow and feeling just plain good. Bed is not long off and I suspect I will sleep well tonight. Ahhhh. We had four whole days together, Georges and I. Sometimes there were others around; Georges' oldest was here all weekend with his girl, and we went out and met friends here and there. But mostly, we just spent our time together, either home or out around town. And it was last night over a nice dinner in our favorite local restaurant, that I realized something. I would rather be with Georges than with anyone. I have more fun with him than with anyone else. I feel more relaxed with him than with anyone else. Even going to the supermarket or the bank is fun when we do it together. Being stuck like sardines on a hot... Read more →

A Parisian Picnic Primer

Sounds of Parisian buses and traffic drone in the distance. Children laugh and scream with delight as they chase butterflies, balls and each other. A bell clangs, from the nearby carousel. A soft breeze tempers the heat of the sun beating down from a cloudless blue May sky. I see a tall and regal crane standing in the lake at the foot of the little hill while songbirds chirp cheerfully from their tree-top perches. Such is the ambiance here at the Buttes-Chaumont. Welcome to the first great picnic-day of the season! And how fortuitous that it should fall on the “bridge” Friday between the Thursday holiday (Ascension, this one) and the weekend. After weeks of dismal, unseasonably too-chilly May weather, it seems Mother Nature has finally gotten the memo: it's spring and time for a weekend picnic! Doing a spontaneous al fresco meal in one of Paris' parcs is by far one of my favorite parts of city life. I can't honestly say I spent much time arranging or attending picnics when I lived in the country in New Jersey, where we normally did barbecues on someone's backyard patio rather than sitting on a blanket in some local park. In... Read more →

The birthday that only got better with age

My birthday yesterday started off in a very un-promising way. In fact, the morning totally sucked, to put it bluntly. Our psycho cat had spent the previous two nights torturing this small mouse (at least, I think it was the same mouse) but didn't have the decency to put it out of its misery. So this made it hard for me to sleep since (a) I hate mice and was worried the mouse would somehow find its way into my room (the only bedroom on the first floor) in its efforts to flee the cat's sadistic wrath, and so I had to find ways to barricade myself in the room by blocking the bottom of the door. And (b) the cat made one helluva lot of noise chasing this mouse, knocking over things on the kitchen counters, banging up against my door while chasing the terrified rodent (and thus confirming I was not in the least over-reacting when I blocked the bottom of the door). I got very little sleep and woke up grumpy, and with a bad headache. Not a great start to the day that I wasn't looking forward to in the first place. Some time later, I... Read more →

Deep breath... I. Am. Forty. [ugh] Eight.

What do you mean, one day I'll be 48? Are you freaking nuts? Read more →

What a difference a year makes

As is now a habit with me, I like to take time out to reflect each year, just before my birthday, on what the past year was like and what may (or may not) have changed. It's sort of like taking annual inventory and I nearly always come away feeling pretty good about myself because while there are the inevitable things I didn't get done (as in Nobody's Perfect), in the balance I usually come out ahead. And like this time last year, I am once again a bit stunned with how radically my life has changed. One year ago I had been engaged to Georges for just a month and I was in full-out wedding-planning mode. The kids and I were still getting used to each other, but it was going well. Clachat and I were not on good terms, however... and there's one area where I see some big progress over the past year, in that now she seeks me out for attention and she seems to have decided that I'm The One who makes her life better. She now tries to climb into my lap even when, or perhaps especially when, I have my laptop there. (I... Read more →