Signed, Pithy
I don't have anything pithy to write about the new year. "Hey, it's 2007, ya'll! Golly day. It's going to take me 3 months to get the date right on my checks." That's about as pithy as it gets over here today.
So, for lack of pith, I thought we might take a stroll down the romantic lane of my memory and go to France. In 2001, Steve and I took our two little ones for a 5 month work assignment and lived in the heart of chic fashion and haute cuisine- Paris.
My French experience is a fond memory, but it is not the memory of a 2-week-tourist-with-a-guidebook. Doing France with young children means most of the typical tourist haunts of quaint Parisian cafe's are OUT, and mapping the city according to park and playground locations, is IN. Surprisingly, Paris has more parks and playgrounds than you can shake a baguette at. Betcha didn't know that, did you?
Here is a brief, and I mean brief, tour of our stomping ground in the City of Lights.
The corner of our street, Rue du Ranelagh.
Another house on our street. C'est magnifique!
Steve and the girls outside the Louvre. Plan about 3 full days to walk through their collections. And that's if you walk FAST! (Sorry, no DaVinci codes to be found.)
A bonding moment at La Tour Eiffel.
This is one of those amazing parks. Pay a few francs and ride your horse on a lovely, meandering "trail" through the pastoral landscape of the Bois de Bologne. Each horse is complete with whinnies and trot-to-gallop motion. Beats a carousel anyday!
Paris at it's chicest.
View of Paris from Sacre Coeur
(You can't see much other than that Paris is HUGE)
When you spend a lot of time doing this...
... you spend a lot of time doing this.
Looking at the Arc de Triomphe from atop the Eiffel Tower
My intrepid, touristy, Francophiles (atop the Eiffel Tower)
On a very, very sad note, I made a point to journal about all of our visits and escapades, and to E-mail those stories to my friends in the States. This was before blogging exsisted, mind you. My fool proof plan was that all my tales would be documented in my "sent" box and preserved for posterity.
Sacre bleu! Something went awry and all my excellent stories got flushed down the cybertoilet. (I almost made Steve stay in France over that one. I mean, if you marry a computer nerd, he's supposed to rise to the occasion when your French computer freezes up... right?!) Well, those beautifully crafted missives are gone. If any of you have been reading my E-mails, and for some unfathomable reason SAVING them, for 6 years, I'd sure like a copy of those stories I relayed.
They were so pithy too! It's enough to make you cry in your croissant.
paper lantern of the day Tuesday, January 02, 2007
10 Comments:
Why, merci beaucoup, mon amie Erin, for this lovely stroll down uber-chic Francais memory lane.
What a butchered sentence! ha!
But, how COOL is that to spend FIVE MONTHS abroad on company time? Wow :)! It's so nice putting your face with your name, too. C'est magnifique, n'est pas!?!
I feel the pain of your losing your journal...O U C H! :( Surely, SURELY someone has those emails.
Our Christmas and New Year's holidays have been good, I have laughed much and enjoyed friends and family, I'm thankful for both.
Wishing you much peace, much love, much joy and much life in 2007! And the ability to date your checks correctly...TODAY! :)
Beautiful pics - my fav are two eiffel tower ones, the one with you in front with the kiddies and the one taken at night directly under the lit tower.
thanks for the tour.
Wonderful pics... you've got me all sentimental... I went to Paris on my honeymoon. And I too lost something I still cry in my croissant over... our camera was stolen, with all our pics... so, it's all just in my memories now. Though I think you captured some of our favorite spots! (Including the parks.)
Great, great pictures and thanks for the tour. I have sometimes wondered if I'd like to visit Paris or not but now I know that I would if I could.
We went to the States in 2002 and I emailed an email club I was part of, so I assume those emails would still be in archives... but I doubt I'd have friends who saved them for that long.
Happy New Year!
What a wonderful opportunity for your family. I love the bonding moment picture. And the horse trail...fabulous...makes me want to break into "It's a jolly holiday with Mary.."
Thanks for sharing your memories.
I have old emails going back to November 2001!! But, there is an old machine that may have some older ones. I'll let you kn ow.
Erin,
Just nice to see someone *not* saying something pithy about the new year. I feel the same way. It's a new year - big deal - and I, too, will probably mess up my checks for at least a month.
Michelle
Hi Erin,
Thanks for visiting my blog! I posted a short comment back to you over there, but decided to visit you here and see what you're all about. :)
Kirk and I honeymooned in Paris this past summer, and seeing your pics brought all of it back. Yes, my dear, I DID know that Paris had lots of parks -- but that's what surprised me so much about it when we got there, too: so much green amid the white concrete!
So sorry to hear about losing the e-mails. I would have thought the same thing you did in writing them down that way. Thank goodness for blog archives now...
Erin -- I've always wanted to go to France. Your recountings here were far better than pithy New Year's sentiments.
How's the check writing going? Still using 06?
How cool is that! Love those shots! I am so jealous! ;) You have such a lovely family. I wish we could be neighbors. I love that music you have playing tonight - wed. (near midnight)...
I am sorry to hear that you lost your fond memories of the trip via computer crash. :( Hate it when that happens!
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