Well almost, we still cope with blustery winds and cold days. Still, the azaleas bloom and Jim conducts wedding celebrations galore. Below is the Chateau d’Esclimont, home of two weddings, the latest yesterday, April 13, and also a recent wedding by the light of the Eiffel Tower, see left. These are great jobs and somebody’s got to do it.

We travel across Paris and on daytrips with “Friday Tour Group,” an informal group of expatriate Americans, Americans married to French and vice versa, and a host of other nationalities. FTG was founded about 10 years ago by flight attendants based in Paris –many though retired are still members, maintaining flats here in their much-loved city. We recently traveled to Orléans which owes much of its fame to  Joan of Arc and witnessed the statute of her restored by Paul Belmondo.

A big deal treat was the visit to the Musée Campanaire Bollée and a look at the different stages of  manufacturing cathedral and church bells for religious facilities across France and the world.

Here we are at a café happy hour following an April 4 visit to the Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine, located in the Trocadero Pallais de Chaillot, overlooking what else, the Eiffel Tower.

It’s a great life and somebody’s got to live it,

Pam and Jim in Paris

On Monday 15 October, I (Jim) performed the first ever wedding ceremony in the garden of the Musée Rodin, which is the forth most visited museum in Paris.  The museum is closed on Mondays and a couple from Minneapolis had arranged, through a young woman who arranges wedding ceremonies in Paris for visitors, to hold a ceremony in the garden at the Rodin museum.

No, I am not a minister and so I cannot actually marry people.  But all French couples who get married, by law, are first married at their local Mairie, which is like the City Hall in the United States.  Their marriage at the Mairie is their legal marriage, they need not do anything else.  But many couples, desiring a church wedding, have a second, religious ceremony performed.  That is what I did for the couple from Minneapolis, they had been married a few days earlier, by a justice of the peace, at their City Hall, and I performed their religious ceremony in the beautiful garden of the museum.

The photo shown here was taken by me months ago and shows the garden as viewed from approximately where the ceremony was performed.  Is that spectacular, or isn’t it!  Well, let me simply say that it was beautiful, as were the bride and groom.  She was dressed in a simple, but lovely, white gown; and he was impeccable in a black suit and tie. They arrived in a chauffeur-driven car, that stopped in front of the museum at the far end of the lawn that you see in the photograph.  They got out of the car and walked together down the path to the right of the lawn as seen in the picture.  An accordionist played as they walked.  They came to where I was standing waiting for them, about where the above picture was taken from, and the ceremony began.

I had prepared the ceremony over a period of about two weeks using my words together with quotes from four writers that the bride and groom wanted included.  They had also written their vows and the words for the ring exchange. The ceremony took a little over 30 minutes and included four pieces played by the accordionist (which is the instrument that the bride wanted played).

Only the bride and groom were here from Minneapolis.  The others who were present were the accordionist, his wife or girl-friend, a photographer, a videographer, the wedding planner and her assistant, two people from the museum staff, and Pam and myself.  We all drank fine champagne and ate some delicious chocolate cake in the garden following the ceremony.  It was all quite perfect.

How did this come to happen? Well, the wedding planner, who knows Pam, happened to need somebody to perform this particular ceremony.  Someone told her that Pam’s husband, Jim, had a masters degree from a theological seminary.  She thought that sounded like the kind of person she wanted and so she called and asked if I would do it.  And I said, yes.  And what a thrill it was!

One thing I will never do in Paris, eat frites dipped in mayonaisse! One thing I will never get used to –stripping naked in front of a French doctor, even a woman, in her office then climbing onto the table! Jim and I are now on the French health care system and learning the ropes. Our travels took us earlier this month to Cabourg in Normandy  for a “William the Conqueror”  12 k randonnée, a so-called walk that’s more like a hike. We completed the hike, ate great seafood, walked the beautiful English Channel beach, and enjoyed the sunshine.

     Look for France Magazine in October at Barnes Noble, possibly Borders and other bookstores. My “My France” profile with actress Leslie Caron is in this edition. Last night some female friends joined my at the famous literary Café Floré for a celebration. I heard from my friend Tish Duvé in St. Petersburg that her subscription copy arrived in the mail.

     Next week is “Bloomed Where You Are Planted” at the American Church here, a two-day orientation extravaganza for newcomers to Paris. Jim and I are kitchen and photo volunteers –today at a French boulangerie we ordered 225 vegetarian quiches for lunch  on Monday, in French no less. Bloom reminds me of looking through my Uncle Sing’s trunk after my grandmother died. He had died several years before. He was an Army veteran and served in Vietnam as a special advisor. In his belongings was a booklet given to newcomer families in the early 1960s, similar to the Bloom book, with information about schools, how to do laundry, where to grocery shop and the best restaurants. Then there was a  later letter written to my grandmother, telling her that all family members, women and children, had been ordered to leave Vietnam. Those historical documents are safe in storage in the USA.

     My goddaughter Kristin Hall is across the English Channel in Stratford, starting her master’s program at the Royal Shakespeare.  My Aunt Nell in Georgia faces some health challenges so she is in our thoughts. Our friend and author Marian Coe died in late summer. Jim and I met at a singles group she facilitated at the Clearwater Unitarian Universalist Church.

     We so much enjoyed our September company, Ronnie Goodstein and Laurie Hudson from St. Petersburg-Tampa, and Mr. & Mrs. Lee Hoffmann from Clearwater. September is the official start of the “New Year” here. The French operate on school year time. Our best to you all,  wish you were here, Pam and Jim

Until I retired I never would have imagined that I would someday be living in Paris, the city of light. I did not believe it could really happen even when Pam and I began making plans about a year before I retired go live in Paris for 12 to 15 months. But it all happened, we did come to Paris and now we have been here for more than two years.

People who have come to visit us and other Americans we have met who work here have on occasion asked me what I do here. It is a good question, but it is the wrong question. The better question is: What is it like, Jim, to be here? And the answer to what is it like to be here is that it is simply wonderful!

Paris is a delight to the senses. It is beautiful to see, it is wonderful to smell, and it’s sounds(?) well, they are like the sounds of any great, dynamic, full of life city. It touches me, too. Its warm summer and crisp winter air on my skin, its streets on the soles of my feet, its kilometers on my leg muscles. All of this bathes me in wonder.

And Paris is constantly new. I continue to see things that I have not noticed before, learn words I did not know before (ok, that’s no surprise since the language is totally new to me). I meet so many wonderful Americans and so many wonderful Europeans, including, of course, French people.

It is simply not true, by the way, that the French are rude. Oh, some are, but most are not, particularly the young people. And it is not true that the French are lazy. I understand that France has the fifth largest economy in the world, and it is a country about the size of Texas. Productivity studies have shown, so I read, that French workers are more productive, per hour, than just about any other workers in the world, including American workers. But the French worker does not work the number of hours per year as workers in America do. Maybe that is why they are more productive.

France, like all countries, has its unique problems. High unemployment is one of them and the cost of its social services is becoming more difficult to sustain. But here is an important thing to consider: it will be far less painful on France and the French to fix these problems than it will be on America and Americans to fix Americas growing problems. I say these things because just this morning there was a George Will column in the US papers critical of France and its problems. Yet, the truth is that, even with its problems, France is way ahead of many countries in important areas.

For instance, the French enjoy, according to the World Health Organization, the most cost efficient health care system in the world. America isn’t even in the running, it places something like 35th or so. Public transportation in France (and Europe in general) is superb. High speed trains can take you all over France and Europe at reasonable fares. Paris arguably has the finest city-wide transportation system in the world, and its cost is low.

I could go on, but I will not. I will, instead, come back to the question as to what do I do in Paris. There is an answer to this question that I have already alluded to: I live in wonder, that is what I do in Paris. And I do the trivial. I vacuum our apartment and mop the kitchen and bathroom floors once a week. I feed our cat, Maggie, and dog, Chablis, and keep their dry croquette food on hand. I wash the dishes, by hand, at least twice and sometimes three times a day in our petite cuisine (little kitchen). I watch American and French television and read the International Harold Tribune and a few articles in French magazines. Pam and I go together to the cinema to see a film once or twice a week and I go even more often some weeks. Most American films are shown in Version Originale (i.e., in English) with French sous-titre (subtitles).

We live seven minutes (walking) from the Notre Dame cathedral. Today, for the first time, I went with some friends to the top of the cathedral bell towers. From the towers, which are at the center of Paris, I could look out over this city of wonder and marvel at its beauty. 

I have seen the city from the top of the Eiffel Tower and from the top of the Pompidou Center, and the city is impressive when seen from these places, but the view from the Notre Dame towers was the most glorious that I have seen. My friends agreed. As I said, Paris is constantly new.

And now I must do one of those multiple of things that I do in Paris; run the vacuum cleaner.

Chateau Andelot,  a 12th century castle remotely nestled near St. Amour in the French Comte, served as our summer Bonnes Vacances location. We stayed two nights, overlooking the Jura Mountains and on a clear day Mont Blanc in the French Alps can be seen in the distance. Check out Chateau Andelot at www.chateauandelot.com.  We stayed in the Dupont suite. Anne and Michael Droley, a young American couple from Denver operate the inn, but that’s another story I plan to sell to a magazine or newspaper.

We rented a car and drove to Annecy, about an hour and a half  from the Chateau through little towns and villages and mountains, another reminder of North Carolina. Annecy with its lake and river canals is a great place to visit. Google it for a good look.

The Paris weather continues to be more like October than summer but who’s complaining. It’s better than living sans air conditioning, sitting in front of fans in damp underwear!

Next time-our weekly art classes and William the Conquerer hiking trip, planned for September in Normandy.

And Jim promises to answer the question “what do you do all day in Paris?” 

Jim and I just returned from helping cook and serve 65 men, women and children at the American Cathedral Mission Lunch, an every Friday event with table service and a three-course meal including French cheese and green salad, served French-style of couse between the plat du jour and dessert. College students from my home state of Georgia helped prepare and serve today. I debated with another Savannah native, my hometown, which Savannah southern cooking restaurant is the best, Mrs. Wilkes or Paula Deen’s Lady & Sons. We both agreed Mrs. Wilkes, with that boarding house reach, reigns as a sentimental favorite.

The weather continues to be beautiful here, a perfect Florida early spring day and North Carolina summer. Monday we take the TGV fast train south to Bourg-en-Bresse for a two-night stay at Chateau Andelot, about 1.5 hours either way to Annecy and Lyon. Hiking, enjoying our rental car in the country, a day in Annecy overlooking the Alps and Lake Geneva, can’t wait!

I am finishing the “Diana Chronicles” by Tina Brown, a good read. The hospital where Diana died is near us so I will write more about the 10th anniversary date here.

While this blog will be a regular publication, next week we hope to have my annual report newsletter up with photos.

Jim will  soon blog to his most frequently asked question “what do you do all day in Paris?”

Loving Paris, Pam