Our Long Sejour en France

Since I last wrote we’ve been in Marseille, Nice, Lyon, and Dijon.  We were in Marseille and Nice one week each. I was so in my happy place being near water and sun. Marseille is the same latitude as upper Michigan and has palm trees and bougainvillea! Nice is slightly further north.  From the marina in Marseille you can see a church looming over the city: Cathedrale Notre Dame de la Garde. We decided to go up to it. We took a bus part way up the hill and then climbed stairs the rest of the way. It was worth it. Beautiful views of the city.  We also managed to take part in the Olympics excitement by going to a men’s soccer match - US v. New Zealand. US won. I was happy that, as I said to Chris, “It wasn’t a zoo.” I did not miss a chance to go to the beach in Marseille. The water was cold but refreshing. It was so easy to get to! It was even easier to get to the beach in Nice - and the water was warmer. Below is a video I took of the beach in Nice, thinking I was taking a ...

REVISED August 17, 2024 My biggest disappointment on this trip is that I have not been able to understand when people speak to me in French. I can speak to people; I just can’t understand when they respond. I knew this was going to be an issue. I just didn’t know how to prepare for it. When we’ve encountered young people who speak English well, they say they learned mostly by watching TV and reading. So now I know.  I read French pretty well, and I’ve been delighted by the colorful metaphors, often bordering on hyperbole, that the French employ. As in my last blog: “cropping” and “mutilating” Moreau’s ideas and actions. I suspect in translation these do not carry the hyperbole we would attach to it.  But they do add color.  I’ve also loved French ingenuity. In our trip here in 2000, I loved the little kiosk toilets in the middle of the sidewalk. They’re a lot bigger now, but how great to have a facility readily accessible - for a euro, at least - which does make it proble...

REVISED August 17, 2024 Yikes! Bedbugs! Or are they? Our last day in Bordeaux we found little bug bites - on my face and upper arm; on Chris’s arms and legs. Bedbugs? Fleas? Or those fruit flies that hovered in the kitchen? (Not as gross as it sounds - much of France is not air conditioned, so you have to keep the windows open. Bugs are going to fly in.) Otherwise it was a nice apartment. We let the host know; he gave us a break; and I didn’t ruin his rating.  But I  digress. Before we went to Bordeaux, we stayed a couple of days in Le Mans. Why Le Mans? Cathedral High School, Chris’s alma mater, was founded by the order of the Holy Cross, which was founded by Basile Moreau in Le Mans. After a little research, we found his church, Notre Dame de Sainte Croix (Our Lady of the Holy Cross) and paid our respects to Basil Moreau.  Moreau was a man of vision and action. He was admired but also took a lot of flak. One description in French said his ideas were “cropped” and “mutil...

Hi, everyone. Chris and I are on the road and I have lightened my load by leaving my computer in Paris. So I’m doing this on my phone. This is a revised blog with pictures added after we got back to Paris and I was able to use my laptop. We spent our last two nights in Paris at the apartment of family friends of Chris’s before leaving to avoid the Olympics. We were in the 7th arrondissement, spitting distance from l’Hotel des Invalides and walking distance to the Eiffel Tower.  Our first stop was Mont Saint Michel and the abbey built on a rock in the bay. I’m so glad Chris mentioned this while I was planning our trip. MSM is a magical place. It looms over the Normandy mainland and the ebb and flow of the tides make it a place of wonder.  It used to be that one could walk to MSM from the Normandy mainland during the low tide. Because of climate change, low tide is no longer long enough to make the crossing. There is now a bridge.  We took a tour of the abbey, which was int...

We are officially more than half-way through our "long séjour" in France/Paris. We're also getting close to our trip around France. On Monday we will depart from this apartment (which has been OK but the kitchen and bathroom are much too small) and go to Chris's family friends' apartment for a couple of days. Unfortunately, they will not be there because of illness, but we are still hoping to see them when we return to Paris in August. Since this is our last week in the 13th arrondissement, we made sure to visit the places we still had to visit that are nearby. This week we visited the Musée Rodin (Rodin museum), revisited the Musée d'Orsay, went to the Eglise (Church) of Saint Germain des Prés, and toured the Conciergerie. You'll notice we re-visited Musée d'Orsay, so we are getting to the end of our A list of places to visit. We've started a B list of things to do when we come back in August. I had no idea what to expect of the Rodin museum. I ha...

On Sunday we moved from the 18th arrondissement to the 13th. We got the chance to experience suburban life on Blvd Péripherique - Paris's equivalent to a beltway (I-465 to Indy Hoosiers). Our cab driver was charming and I was pleased to have the opportunity to speak French with someone who would give me the chance.  Our apartment in the 13th is tiny. Tiny kitchen, tiny bathroom, tiny shower. Fortunately, the living room and bedroom are manageable size. But it's only for 2 weeks, so nothing we can't live with. In addition to getting to know the surroundings of our new "home," we've managed to do a lot this week. Just before we left the 18th, we saw the Monet water lily montage in the Musée de l'Orangerie. We saw these in Chicago when we lived in Chesterton, IN, many, many years ago. They are just as lovely in their home in Paris. Monday we spent time getting to know the neighborhood. It seems there is a park in Paris everywhere you turn - and we found the o...