The Bold Soul: A Writer's Life in Paris

That's Witch with a "W", thank you very much

Did anyone else ever want to be Samantha in Bewitched when you were growing up... or was that just me? (Or even Jeannie in I Dream of Jeannie? I mean, she DID have the sexier wardrobe, even though the network censors made Barbara Eden cover her navel because America wasn't ready for her cleavage, her pouty lips, AND her bare navel... there are LIMITS, people.) Growing up in the mid-to-late 1960s, my little sister and I used to pretend we were one or the other, but most often it was Bewitched. Decades before Harry Potter and friends put a magical world in front of our very eyes, Samantha, Endora, Uncle Arthur and Aunt Hagatha were the bomb. And we wanted to have that kind of power to do anything from magically cleaning our rooms (wouldn't THAT have come in handy?) to making that nasty boy around the corner -- the one who hurled rock-hard ice balls at me and put big red welts on my legs one winter's day -- disappear. I remember that once, we found a book that purported to have actual witches potions in them, but they looked too complicated or required items we couldn't locate --... Read more →

I swear I'm not making this up

We just had a whopper of a freak thunderstorm: bolts of lightening, downpours, hail and so much rain the staircase behind Sacre Coeur turned into a waterfall. Then, the sun came out... And another stunning complete double rainbow! I will miss this view when we move someday. This is why our rent is too high... But days like this it sure seems worth it. Read more →

Because I'm tired

I never thought packing up one small boy and seeing him off on his fall school holiday could be so much work, and so exhausting. Intellectually, I figured it was no big deal. He will be spending the time with our good friends and what's the big deal about throwing some clothes, books and games in a suitcase, right? Pfft. Because he is spending his vacation where he'll get to play outdoors a lot, and we can't predict the weather but it's nearly November already, I had to plan his wardrobe accordingly. And because we don't have a clothes dryer and the colder weather means air-drying things takes longer, I actually had to wash and organize his clothes about four days ago. Times like this I really miss having a dryer. Because he was invited to go to the country (Ardeche) with our good friends and their two young boys, he needed rain boots (there is a stream to wade in, and they will go hiking in the woods). And a sleeping bag. While at the sporting goods store, I also picked up good winter gloves (which I'm pretty sure he'll lose within the month), a polar fleece jacket, an... Read more →

Generation gap à Go-Gos

When I was a much younger woman, these were The Go-Gos I knew and loved: I even once sang "Vacation" at a company picnic in front of all my colleagues; two of the guys I worked with were part-time musicians, and when the boss found out we all had some musical talent, he pretty much ordered us to form a band and entertain the troops, so to speak. My God, that was fun. Wish I had it on video! And the Go-Gos were at their peak then in the 80s, and their music defined the era (hey, remember the opening credits of Fast Times at Ridgement High and "We've Got the Beat"?) Nowadays, things have changed. In our house, THESE are the Go-Gos that count: These little plastic characters, also known as Gogo's Crazy Bones, are the latest "collectible" craze according to the Little Guy (they've been around longer than he's been alive but they're hot with the kids around here). They cost 1.50€ for a pack of 3 (and you get some stickers in the pack as well). Instead of getting up and jumping around on a dance floor wearing a mini-skirt and over-permed 80's hair (yeah, that was... Read more →

Doublé date

On this theme of "doubles", last night Georges and I went on a really fun double date with a good friend and her new fella. While we were walking to meet our friends, I said to Georges, "This is fun... a double date!" Georges laughed and said he thought that was such a funny -- as in funny ODD, funny STRANGE -- term, "double date". In his mind, it conjured up a very different reaction for him than it did for me. For me, a double date is a totally normal thing, just meaning two couples hanging out together somewhere. And for Georges -- because the French don't even "date" in the way that we Yanks think of it -- it just sounded rather bizarre to him. Which made me think, and not for the first time, of the similarities as well as the differences in our two cultures with regard to how couples become couples. My friend (the one we were meeting for dinner) and I have often discussed this, because as women over 35 who have either married later in life ore are not yet married (although I suspect for my friend, her relationship status on Facebook is... Read more →

Doublé

I think this is quite possibly the most magnificent rainbow I've ever seen in my entire life. I could see the entire rainbow, end to end, and as much as I like how the photos turned out (and I did zero photo editing because I wanted to show them as-is), they don't even scratch the surface of the beauty of the real thing. When this appeared yesterday off our balcony, it was near the end of a rather tiring and stressful day where I'd been concerned about the health of someone I love very much. I had gotten some encouraging news about an hour earlier, however, and then the weather changed (in typical Parisian fashion) as a rain cloud burst in the distance, and this rainbow appeared. Within about a minute, it went from a brilliant single rainbow with every color in the spectrum so bright and clear that I wanted to jump off the balcony and slide down the rainbow and roll around in the colors, to an even more magical double rainbow. And it lasted a good 15 minutes, too. I took it as a much-needed "All will be well, and all will be well, and all manner... Read more →

En famille

This weekend, I was reminded over and over again how very fortunate I am when it comes to Georges' family here in France. One of Georges' sisters came for lunch on Saturday, along with her son and a good friend of the family. It's the first time that this particular sister (he has several) was able to come just for an intimate, casual meal with us in our home, and of course I wanted to make a good impression simply because it was their first time here, even though of course I've met her elsewhere several times over the past four years and we get along very well. And her son, Georges' only nephew, is one of those people you can't help but like, he's just so easy going and fun to be around. Because I never met Georges' parents, getting to know his sisters has been really important to me, and I'm sure it's important to him as well because they are his family. I am sure the last thing any of Georges' kids or sisters ever expected was to have a lunatic American writer enter their lives and refuse to leave. Of course, we've had to make adjustments... Read more →

Interdit

One of the things that fascinates me about Montmartre is all the little hidden corners, courtyards and gardens. Every so often, you might manage to stumble upon one of these secret treasures. I was walking through the gardens behind the Musée de Montmartre the other day, and spotted this gate in a stone wall. Mysterious... This week has been very busy, but not because I've been writing. Georges and I are working on a little project that I can't talk about yet, but we're super-excited about it. It's been taking up a fair amount of my time (and we've got some of our French family and friends coming for a big lunch tomorrow so I have been preparing for THAT, too. Which reminds me, I need to get to the supermarket STAT). Once we know what's happening with our project, I'll be able to share more with you. And hell no, I'm not pregnant. ;) Read more →

Just a little vineyard in Paris

Taken from the gardens behind the Musée de Montmartre. Read more →

Best day of my life

Four years ago, today, Georges and I met... and a new chapter of our lives began. Even now, we continue to be in awe of the way we met and how neither of us felt compelled to run the other way in fear, because it might well have been justified! But happily, we both just "knew" this was something very special and we both chose to roll with it and give it time to develop. And now, here we are! To celebrate, we decided to go to dinner at the Vietnamese place we like on rue Véron (off rue Lepic near the "Amélie" Café des Deux Moulins) because (a) we love the food and (b) that is where Georges presented me with my engagement ring, with Paris' ugliest drag queen looking on at the next table (proving that no matter how much you try and plan something in life -- like the perfect romantic marriage proposal, for instance -- sometimes life just has a sense of humor and a plan of its own). We went there last night because they're closed Sundays, and were half-hoping the drag queen and his 1960s leisure-suit-wearing companion would be there again because THAT would... Read more →