A Fond Farewell

I leave today for home. I have had the most amazing summer here in France. I have met so many wonderful, friendly people and seen so many beautiful and interesting places. A special thank you to my friend Peter who was again so very generous with his time and made my trips to Paris so much fun. I'm a very lucky girl! Am I sad to be leaving? You bet, but I found this quote from Eddie on Nathalie's Avignon blog yesterday that says it pretty well.

"Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened. "

"Ne pleurez pas parce qu'il s'est fini. Souriez parce qu'il s'est passe."

I will continue to post photographs here as long as I have them. When they run out I guess I'll have to figure out how to get back to Paris for more!

Paris Rouge

You know how I feel about red/rouge. There are many more to come!

Two/deux posts today. Scroll on down!

Cite de l'architecture et du patrimoine café

Chaises rouge

Vins blanc et rouge

Chic rouge á la Palais Royal

An Afternoon at the Jardin des Plantes

We're having a little trouble getting up in the mornings so our "day" usually starts around 12:30ish. Today we walked to the Jardin des Plantes. It is a short stroll from our apartment. We've decided to pace ourselves here since we will be coming often. Today we visited the "menagerie". A quaint little zoo, it doesn't have a wide variety of animals, but we found the grounds well kept and the accomodations for the animals much nicer than the zoo at home. Of interest to me was the fact that there were many, many school groups, as young as preschool, and the children were a tad "wild"! I almost lapsed into "teacher mode" a few times but got a grip on myself.

While we did not by any means see the entire gardens , I hope my photos today will give you a little taste. Enjoy!

For those of you interested in the weather, today was overcast and pretty chilly by Alabama standards. We are NOT COMPLAINING! After the first few days of heat, we are pleased. Tomorrow's forecast is mid 50's!

ATTN Blog Friends: I am having trouble leaving comments on some of your blogs. It asks for acct info but doesn't recognize Blogger acct or Name/URL. Can anyone help me out here?

Les Girls!

Apparently I'm having better luck with Parisian men than the women. What do you think?
# 6 of my 100 French Strangers Challenge. This gardener at the Jardin des Plantes took some time explaining that that portion of the garden was planted with fragrant plants to attract butterflies. He told me the names of all them!

Apartment With a View!

We consider ourselves very fortunate that our flight went well. The children slept like logs . (Behold the power of Benadryl) Melissa and I napped. Enough said about that. We got through
Charles de Gaulle with ease and our van driver was right there to load us up. When we arrived at the apartment we were greeted by Jerome ( my new best friend) himself and he has been a delightful and helpful host. He took Melissa to the market and has shown us the ropes around here. I babysat from the couch with barely one eye open watching the kids. I feel like I did after I stayed up all night studying for exams in college. You know the feeling. The baguette and vin blanc is helping I think.

Now about the view. That is the dome of the Val de Grace church from our living room window. We can hardly wait for nightfall ( for a lot of reasons). Jerome says the dome is lit and it's gorgeous. I 'm still up, I'll be shooting it from the window.

Tonight we strolled the neighborhood and had pizza at a nice cafe. Everyone including moi is tired to the bone so it's an early night of this crowd. I'm including a few photos from our first outing this afternoon.

The Dancers

Some Serious Motorcycle Envy

Our apartment
The Cell Phone Sisters

Bonjour Paris!!!

Bonjour Paris!   With any luck at all, we are in Charles de Gaulle Airport ( CDG)  today , feeling somewhat human.  Hopefully the French Customs Officials are pleased as punch to see us,  and we will shortly be off to meet M. Santa- Ana and his nice big van that can accomodate all of our excessive American luggage!

( I have not mastered the Paris/Birmingham post option time thing yet. Please bear with me. )

We're off today!  I hope you will stop by often and follow our French adventure.

V