Bonsoir, We have spent a delightful weekend in the Alsace region of France in a lovely village called Soultz. We took the train from Paris to a town very near Soultz and were greeted by Pierre and Laurie Verdier with smiling faces and hugs yesterday afternoon about 6pm. We are very near the German border […]
Bonjour mes amis, We can’t tell you how many times we’ve walked across, around and beside Ile de la Cite in the heart of Paris, home to Notre Dame, Sainte Chapelle, Palais du Justice and beautiful bridges. HOWEVER, we had never been around on the opposite side toward the point and lovely park. At Bernie’s […]
Bonjour, It’s been a gray day here but not a rainy or chilly day; therefore, much better for getting ourselves up and moving! Since our time is getting shorter and shorter and soon busier and busier, we decided to go out to La Defense or contemporary Paris today. It’s a 16-stop jaunt on the Metro. […]
Bonjour on a rainy, cool day! What do you do on a cold, rainy day in Paris? You stay pretty close to home! We’re brave but not so today as the chilly rain put a kabosh on any big plans. Not to despair, however, as we have some great photos of several unique shops that […]
Whether you are retired, still working, raising a family, or eagerly on your way to doing something else with your life, caregiving will eventually come to sit at your front door step. Whether you are rich, poor, healthy, struggling or just ordinary – caregiving will find you. Whether you are a doctor, a museum CEO, […]
Bonjour mes amis, There are few sections of Paris as vibrant as the Marais and when the weather is near perfect, it’s truly hard to have anything but a great day. We were out and about in the blue skies and crisp, cool temps most of the day, here and there catching up on […]
Bonjour, It’s very important to make note of Mondays in Paris and plan accordingly. Mondays are not as casual as Sundays but not fully operational either. Certain patisseries, cafes, hair salons, shops and musuems are closed which can really sidetrack well-laid plans. Traffic is less and those who worked in service industries all weekend often […]
Bonjour, We have been in Paris exactly one month, and today is the first full day of unpleasant weather. How lucky are we! We decided to do a late brunch at one of our most adored spots, the Jacquemart-Andre Museum Cafe in the eighth arrondissment off Boulevard Haussmann. There is a wonderful exhibit at the […]
Bonsoir, Happy Saturday to all as many of you anticipate more SEC football and othes are returning from fall break with family. It rained all through the night in Paris but by 10am, the skies had cleared, and we were blessed with yet another gorgeous October day. Just slightly cool with sun and blue skies. […]
Bonsoir mes amis, This Friday evening we are back in the apartment after a day at Montmartre to take in the wine harvest celebration or Fete des Vendanges. The weather has been just great, not too warm, not too cold, no wind. It was an ideal day for an outside activity and Bernie seems to […]
Bonjour, I knew the day would come when we have no pictures to share. Bernie is a bit under the weather with a cough and cold so we are taking a break today. Also we had four loads of laundry which takes 6 hours…ugh. Then the hike across the street to the dryer. What a […]
Bonsoir, We were delighted to hear from many of you with comments on yesterday’s adventure with the pink Eiffel Tower. Thanks for all the kind words. After such a marathon of spectucular delights yesterday, today will seem almost bland. It has been warmer than expected and the sun did break through for much of the […]
Bonsoir, Wow, what a day. We left the apartment at 1pm and returned at 9pm with at least five miles of walking including hundreds of stops on these tired, weary feet. BUT, we had some amazing good luck and achieved all that we set out to accomplish. The weather when we left was cold and […]
Dear friends, Today is cool in Paris with a low of 51 and a high of only 57 with a moderate wind making it feel much cooler. Heavy rain is on the way tonight. I forgot to bring any gloves and I have so many at home. I found some “sort of” gloves for only […]
Bonsoir, Sunday (dimanche) in Paris is a lovely day, slower and quieter than usual, starting later than usual and reserved for family outings, exercise and enjoyment. Truly not unlike our Sundays in the USA. We slept late, started late and didn’t really have a signficant outing planned. We ate lunch down below us at […]
Bonjour, How funny it seems to be living a Saturday in the fall without SEC football. I’m just noticing that the Alabama game begins at 9:30pm Paris time! Yikes. So Roll Tide and War Eagle to all the fans reading my blog. I actually pull for both sides until they play each other, and you […]
Bonjour, Today has been what the French refer to as “meli-melo”, a little of this and a little of that. This morning we did some reconnaissance around the different apartment that we will use for the last two weeks of our visit while company occupies our rue St. Paul spot. It is on a quiet […]
Bonjour mes amis, Thanks to Anne of Green Gables (via Matt Doss’ Facebook post today) for reminding us that it’s great to live in a world that has Octobers. Paris felt like fall today for the first time as we said hello to the second day of October. It was just a bit cooler, a […]
Bonjour, Every day begins with much the same wonderful question: “What shall we do today?” Usually I am the one who steers our activities but today Bernie suggested that we spend a day on the Left Bank visiting a new restaurant recommended by Jim & Peggy Bilbro, followed by a stroll around the area to […]
Bonjour, Today, we hit the jackpot with Fashion Week. The Chanel event was at 10:30 this morning at Le Grande Palais according to the internet. I convinced Bernie we should leave the apartment at 9:30 (he was not a fan), and off we went to discover whatever we could. I thought the Chanel show would […]
Bonjour mes amis, After a great night’s sleep, we awoke to a little rain this morning and cooler temps. Aha, an opportunity to wear some fall clothes, if even for the morning. It has been so much like summer that wardrobe has been challenging. It’s the “catch 22” of Paris, always wondering about how the […]
Bonsoir, Today’s blog post is best told through Bernie’s wonderful photos. Save one beauty taken last night on the river, all the photos were taken today during our 3-hour stroll (including lunch) from our apartment to the Musee d’Orsay. Hope you enjoy Paris on this autumn day which feels like summer! We’re off to a […]
Bonsoir, The weather is next to perfect, the streets are jammed with happy shoppers walking down the middle of busy streets. (I just love how they do that.) One can feel le joie de vivre. In our area of the Marais, there are more locals than tourists so it’s a great place to experience daily […]
Bonjour, We’re so excited to tell you that the picture problems seem to be fixed and we will convince you of that with today’s post…full of wonderful eye candy. We’ll recoup the photos we had of the lovely folks at Paris Fashion week for your enjoyment. Again, we don’t know if these were models or […]
Bonsoir mes amis, Update! Hot off the press! Just got everything to work with Google Chrome! This blog post is now surpassed!!! First the bad news. There will not be pictures on the blog until either Apple or Word Press figures out their incompatibility. So very frustrating. If you are on Facebook or Twitter, I […]
Bonsoir, Today has all been about pictures! Read on and you will understand. How funny life can be on certain occasions. We had two wonderful opportunities today to pursue fabulous pictures, and 0-la-la, would you belive that we left the apartment without the chip in our camera! I was the last to use it so […]
Dear Friends, Today has been such fun, the kind of day we truly love. First of all, the weather is glorious: clear, crisp, cool and made for outdoor adventure. Before we left the apartment, I was making us a ham and cheese omelet for lunch when Bernie burst into the apartment just as the omelet […]
Bonsoir mes amis, Charles and Judy Gattis left Paris this morning to catch their plane at Orly. We put them in the cab with many hugs and well wishes after eight glorious days exploring together. The rest of our day was taken up with cleaning, laundry, and grocery shopping. We needed a catch-up day and […]
Dear Friends, If we seemed to have disappeared, it’s because we did! We have been without any internet or cable connection for almost two days due to a major outage in the general area. Wow, we’ve all been having withdrawal. It just came back up and I’ll try to whiz through the highlights of our […]
Bonsoir, Today has been a summer day in Paris with temps in the 80’s. Mix this with a fall wardrobe and we were pretty uncomfortable. I started in one outfit, a light, cotton sweater and scarf, and ended the day much lighter. Poor Judy has fewer choices with her travel attire and has just had […]
Bonsoir mes amis, Our side trip from Paris to Normandy with Charles and Judy was “fantastique.” Packed with history, emotion, patriotism, past sacrifice and a salty, blowing wind, our two days were almost perfect. This trip fulfilled Charles’ heart desire to someday visit Normandy, and despite our exhaustion, we will have memories to last […]
Bon soir, A beautiful day in Paris almost always beckons us up the mountain to Montmartre. It is a favorite of ours and evokes a wistful sense of all the great artists who painted from its lovely mountainsides such as Renoir, Picasso and Salvador Dali. It is what I fondly call “old Paris” and the […]
Bonsoir mes amis, Paris weather is absolutely beautiful, and according to the locals, making up for their August which was untypically cool and rainy! How lucky we are to benefit from this quirk of events. The leaves are starting to change, the days are shorter, and the chestnuts are EVERYWHERE, big lovely chestnuts. If you’re […]
Wow, what a long, crazy, but fun day. Most of you by now know that we have been in a 2-star hotel since getting to Paris on Thursday due to a miscommunication with our landlady. The start of our day’s journey would have made a great movie. Charles and Judy Gattis were due to arrive […]
Bonjour mes amis, How lucky can we be to get this fabulous weather in Paris! There is not a cloud in the sky and the temps are perfect. There are fewer people here but not as few as I had thought and hoped. Last evening after I had already sent out my blog post, we […]
Bonjour! Today is gorgeous with sunshine so bright that picture-taking was challenging. What a lovely problem to have, mais oui? We are surviving in our little hotel as best we can though really looking forward to moving into our usual apartment on Sunday morning! In case you are just reading your first blog post, there […]
Dear Friends, We have arrived with absolutely no travel issues, smooth sailing all the way. It’s very odd today because we cannot settle into our cozy little apartment as usual on rue St. Paul until Sunday. We are in a very small but very clean hotel around the corner called l’Hotel Jeanne d’Arc. We couldn’t […]
Dear Friends, FINALLY, today is our departure day, and I’m overwhelmed with so many feelings. I miss my friend Sharon Tyson who has for so many years taken us to the airport. It was part of our tradition, but she is now in Tucson. BUT my wonderful friend and golfing buddy Barbara Buice has stepped […]
This morning I feel a little like I’ve been put through a meat grinder. To bed at 8:30pm and awake at 1:30…ugh! Definitely, my body clock is out of sync but I will persist. On my walk this morning, I was reflecting on how very lucky I am at this stage of life (OLD) to […]
Our preparations for Paris continue! What might you ask does this entail? stopping the newspaper dealing with mail delivery finding someone to take care of house plants getting an updated car tag securing symphony tickets so others can use them. calling all credit card companies with travel dates so that our cards will not be […]
Today is the official start of our trip to Paris for 2014. It is the first day of acclimating our body clocks on Paris time which is seven hours ahead of us here in Alabama. Tonight and every night before leaving, we will go to bed an hour earlier than the previous night and get […]
As you may see from my web site, I have written a book of meditations for caregivers. Having been one for almost a year with my dear mother, I remember with eerie starkness, how alone I felt. I gave and gave and gave and had nothing coming in to refuel my soul. That’s why I […]
As our journey to Paris gets closer and closer, we are excited about one thing in particular, the wine festival at Montmartre on the first weekend in October. In case you don’t know, there are lovely grape vineyards on the back side of the mountain and years ago, this was a fruitful harvest. Now it […]
Every year from mid-July to mid-August, the river Seine in Paris is invaded with tons of sand, beach chairs, beach umbrellas, and hordes of sun-ready Parisians in speedos and bikins. No one is allowed in the water, but all else resembles a beach or Plages. There’s nothing more fun to do in the summer than […]
Every Friday when I am in town, I spend part of my day at the Alzheimer Daycare Center at my church. What an amazing experience this has been for me. It is my first time to have any interaction with Alzheimer’s. Here are some observations. –The staff is dedicated, always positive, loving but firm. […]
Paris in the fall will be all new for us and I’m hyperventilating a little as I think ahead. There will be no Paris Plages (beach), no long days with strolls at 9pm, no twirling Ferris Wheel in the Tuilleries, no cherries at the fruit stands, no Tour de France, no fireworks on Bastille Day. […]
Most of us think of caregiving in a negative light when we think of the elderly, the sick or those who have suffered a terrible accident. We know so many people who are burdened and frustrated with caring for members of their families. They need special doses of support and love. However, I have discovered […]
If traveling to Paris is in your future, we recommend that you not get your euros here in the States beforehand. You will pay through the nose for the conversion and it takes some time and hassle to go through your bank. Here’s a proven, 9-year tested approach that works for Bernie and me. Whether […]
Last evening we joined Charles and Judy Gattis for the City Lights and Stars concert at Burritt on the Mountain. It was a gorgeous evening, perfect for outdoor dining. Just as we were getting everything set up, Bernie said, “Wait! I have a surprise for everyone.” Then he proceeded to put a little tablecloth (actually […]
Bon jour, In exactly one month, we will be leaving for Paris for the tenth year. How exciting! And how blessed we are to have the financial and physical ability to do this! This year we will celebrate Bernie’s 75th birthday. So where is my mind these days? Well, given that we have never gone […]
