Bonjour June 2005 Bonjour July 2005 Bonjour Sept. 2005 Bonjour Jan. 2006 April 2006 |
 My newsletters have been replaced by my blog postings. There are archives of old newsletters. Thanks for reading! Bonjour from Paris - April 2006 Beginning of year 2 in Paris Dear friends, family, travelers - all readers: Gratitude is how I start this issue today, gratitude that my goddaughter Kristin Hall recuperates now at home in Hendersonville, N.C. from a pre-Easter auto accident. Kristin, an award-winning songwriter, short story writer, and straight-A student at Agnes Scott College in Atlanta, was in a car crash going home for Easter break. Hospitalized for 9 days, she is now home. We never know what turns life will give us so let’s seize the day…  ENCOREJim and I are planning for year 2: obtaining our Paris residency papers, still studying French, this time with Isabel our private French tutor. So let us know when you plan to cross the big pond and experience this city and country. Paris celebrates the welcome warm weather with flowers in bloom and many outdoor festivals. We again enjoyed the recent Paris Marathon with more than 32,000 runners including a Texas contingent. |
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COUNTRY WEEKEND The Gallo-roman city of Bourges, with its many half-timbered buildings, beckoned us April 22-23. Paris friends Dawn and David Fall spend time there for his work with Boeing so we took a train-two-hour ride-to Bourges, gateway to the Loire Valley and all those grand chateaus. Highlights included a long nature walk around Les Marais de Bourges-water meadows with rivers, canals, and country restaurants. Urban dwellers tend gardens and fish at Les Marais. We dined on the best scallops and mushrooms in sauce we have had in France at Le Caraqui-Venise au Coeur des marais (in the heart of the marais). Tea lovers, we discovered a great tea room on La promenade des ramparts, a shaded path along a Gallo-roman wall dating to the 4th century. And let’s not forget La Cathedral St.-Etienne, a UNESCO World Heritage Monument since 1992, the widest gothic cathedral in France, full of stained glass windows and gargoyles. Look for more about Bourges from me but for now check out www.bourges-tourisme.com. (Keep reading, there's more after the photos...)
MORE “PINCH ME” DAYS IN NORMANDY AND PARIS
A BUSY WINTER, WECOME TO SPRING Award winning writer Jennifer Dick taught a most beneficial generative writing workshop at WICE this winter, ending just before Easter. WICE used to stand for something like Women’s International Continuing Education but now it is simply WICE and serves women and men, Americans as well as many other nationalities. We heard David Sedaris read again, this time from his best-seller “Dress your Family in Corduroy and Denim” at the Village Voice bookstore. Adrienne Rich reads at the Village Voice on July 18. In other news, we happened upon Mariah Carey coming out of her Paris hotel one Saturday morning, not too many paparazzi so we got a close look at the rock star. Friends of ours saw Brad, Angelina and children at the carousel near the Eiffel Tower, many paparazzi. A great Star Wars exhibit continues here in Paris, and Jim took a class titled History in the Making: Aspects of Islam at WICE, which included a visit to the Paris Mosque and fabulous couscous lunch in the Mosque’s smoke-free restaurant. THAT’S ALL FOLKS  Amsterdam and the Anne Frank museum, Provence for the Lavender, a visit to Germany to see my brother Chris and family and Normandy in August to meet Jim’s daughter Michelle and son-in-law John are on the agenda. My web designer suggests I may want to turn this into a blog…. I am thinking...It’s a great life and the student/union demonstrations come and go. We haven’t witnessed any violence. Oh, and I am off to the American Embassy residence on May 4 for an American Women’s Group luncheon, featuring Chef Excoffier’s three-course lunch and a presentation by Mireille Guiliano, CEO of Veuve Clicquot and author of “French Women Don’t Get Fat.” This will be the third time I have heard Guiliano speak, maybe it will prove the charm. Here’s to a great spring and summer, Pamela and Jim |
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