A Last Minute Dash to Paris

Nothing says it’s time to blog again like a last-minute trip to Paris. 

We planned to avoid Paris like the plaque this year with the Olympics taking place. Until a blogging friend arrived in a Paris and said she was surprised by the “emptiness.” 

Suddenly, my heart beat a little faster! 

I had watched the opening ceremonies and parcoured along with the Phantom who jumped from rooftop to rooftop. When the flame lit the cauldron and the “hot air balloon” rose above Les Tuileries, I longed to see it. 

Earl had appointments scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, but it didn’t take much persuading to get him to reschedule. 

We purchased train tickets from Perpignan in the south of France to Paris. And after a gathering with friends Saturday night, we drove to Perpignan as the sun rose pink over the foothills of the Pyrenees. 

Earl and I had bought our tickets individually, with our senior advantage card for people 60 and over. His seat was in coach 3 and mine was in coach 13. We wandered through the train station looking for someone who could help us arrange seats together but the office was closed early on a Sunday morning. 

We settled for coffee and a croissant, plus a chocolatine for me, which apparently they call pain au chocolat in Perpignan, like the rest of France. 

As we took the escalator up to Voie E to board our train, a conductor stood waiting to see our tickets. I described our dilemma about the seats. 

She asked “do you want to be with me?” Pointing to the coach that Earl was seated in. 

“Bien sur!” I said. And she checked the schedule before telling us which seats were available for us to sit together. 

The TGV is fairly empty now, but we have several stops before Paris. 

As we roll along toward Paris, I looked out the window and to my delight, saw the Mediterranean! 

Next as we passed some salt flats, I saw flamingos feeding peacefully. This already feels like a magical trip. 

2020 Was a Year

 I try to do a year in review to remind myself of some of the fabulous things that happened. 

The Eiffel Tower as sunset nears. 

A morning run and reflected lights by the Louvre

This year especially, I know that I was luckier than many because I had an almost normal summer and got to do some traveling, when many people have been locked down since March. But, let's not jump ahead. 

January 2020:

What delightful thing happened in January? 

Grace and Jack got married

We had no idea at the time how lucky we were for their wedding to take place smoothly when so many other weddings were cancelled in 2020. 

Then 2020 got more difficult as I decided to stay in Ohio to teach three classes while Earl returned to France.

He got back just in time to continue work on our new house and to see record floods in Quillan, which luckily didn't affect our house. 

I considered staying in Spencer's bachelor pad since most nights he was at his girlfriend's place, but in the end I went back to the comfort of Deb and Greg's place in Upper Arlington. 

Deb and I enjoyed some Blue Jackets games. 

I got to celebrate Grace's birthday with her at the end of January and flew to Florida right after, just in time for both Grace and Spencer to come down with a bad case of the flu. Afterward, of course, we wondered if it might have been more than flu. 

February 2020:

Always so happy to spend time with Mom and Dad. Yes, Mom makes a delicious big breakfast.

I loved spending a week with Mom and Dad, plus Tupi, who didn't live to the end of 2020. Nothing beats humid runs during February, listening to the sound of the shrieks of giant dinosaur birds, and ending up with a jump in the pool. 

I didn't know at the time, that I wouldn't see Mom and Dad again in 2020. We're all waiting for a Covid vaccine so we can get together again. 
Because I was teaching English to kids in China throughout the month, I knew how bad the Coronavirus had gotten. I wore a mask on my flight back from Florida and felt quite silly doing it. Now, it's so normal.  

For my final week in Ohio, I stayed at Earl's niece's house with her two girls Regan and Caroline. Nearly a year later, my phone is still littered with selfies they took. 

Julie, Regan and I the morning before I left.

The last time my hair was straight!
So happy to see my husband, my friends, and my own home in France. . 

I flew back on February 22, landing in Barcelona on my birthday, February 23rd. Earl and I were apart for about 6 weeks, the longest time we've been separated in our marriage. He met me at the airport with some flowers that he filched from Jules. 
We had a lovely birthday celebration with friends and a local restaurant. 

March 2020:

As I look at pictures from last March, I rejoice to see us sitting outside at Esperaza market and in the square in Quillan as early as February. Fingers crossed that we have a similar early spring this year. 

Perhaps an Irish coffee at an outside bar

Jack and Grace arrived March 13, having taken a 2-week cruise from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida to Barcelona. We drove down to pick them up, not realizing that theirs was the last cruise ship allowed to dock in Barcelona. A day later and they would not have arrived. 

We stopped in Perpignan for lunch, and Jack began to be surprised by French food.
Cinnamon in the ketchup. A sausage hamburger that was two sausages.
 Any sandwich on a bun is called a hamburger, example a chicken hamburger. 

We had a "free" weekend wandering around markets and sitting at cafes, and then France went into lockdown the following Tuesday. 

That meant that we were limited to walks together, within 1 km of our home. I just loved having Grace with us, although no honeymoon couple wants to start their marriage in confinement with their in-laws. 

Grace and I walked, finding flowers and blossoming trees as the spring arrived. 

April 2020:

April continued in lockdown, but we committed to getting a kitten, mostly because Grace was so lonely without her own cats who were caught on the other side of the Atlantic. We couldn't get the kitten until April, so the month passed with walks and flowers, and we began to sneak friends into our garden for drinks. We continued to be careful, not inviting friends inside. 

Wisteria bloomed, in spite of the pandemic

May 2020:

We ventured out to retrieve our new kitten the week before lockdown ended. Grace had been in France for two months, staying in our little enclave, but as we drove home from getting Louis, she suddenly saw the mountains. She pointed out the mountains with surprise, and I laughed. We live amongst those mountains so it's hard to see the mountains when you're in the middle of them. 

We called him Louis Catorze, and the most polite way to describe him is that he has character.
He also frequently draws blood so we're hoping he calms down eventually. 

With the confinement drawing to a close, we began to take local trips with friends, exploring Cathare castles that we had never visited. 

With Jim and Theresa at Chateau de Queribus


Grace and I wandered to Carcassonne, about an hour from our home,
and we went up to see the castle, known as La Cité.
The statue of the woman at the front, Lady Carcas, has wonky boobs, not sure why. 

June 2020:

In June, we took a trip, staying within France. For our 30th anniversary, we traveled to Pont du Gard. Grace had been there before but it was a first for Jack who loves Roman history. So it was great for him to experience it. The Romans build the Pont du Gard in the first century to carry water to Nimes.

Earl, Grace, Jack and I in front of the Pont du Gard

We visited Carrières de Lumières in Les Baux de Provence where the artwork is projected on the walls of the former limestone mine and come to life. 

This exhibition was Gaudi and Picasso. But a new exhibition is out now
and I can't wait to go see Cezanne

After a night in Aix with Grace and Jack, we traveled to Nice and enjoyed a few nights to celebrate our anniversary. We had never visited Nice before and were not overwhelmed with the beaches, which are heavy pebbles that filled up our shoes or pierced our feet. We bought beach shoes but the pebbles still sucked us down. Not a top choice if swimming is your goal. 

The panorama is beautiful. I had some great runs, and Earl and I enjoyed drinks and the view. 

July 2020:

Back in Quillan, July is tourist season and also festival season. How lucky were we to sit outdoors with a tableful of friends, not just for Bastille Day but for so many great evenings. 

Outdoor festivals

We danced to bands and felt like it was a normal summer in the south of France. 

Earl got interviewed by a producer from 2020. But they didn't use enough of his interview. 

I had a fall in July that has curtailed my running for months, but I don't need to share that picture. 

August 2020:

At the beginning of August, I took a hiking trip with my friend Claudine. We stayed in France, but just headed farther south toward the Spanish border. 

We climbed past several waterfalls and ended at a pool on top of a mountain. 

We hiked on some of the hottest days of the year and didn't drink enough water, but we came back alive and had a great time. 

The rock formation is called Les Orgues or the organ, for obvious reasons. 

In August also, Grace and Jack left us and headed to Dublin to create their new life with grad school and whatever other doors opened to them. 

September 2020: 

In September, Earl and I dashed up to Paris for a few nights and watched the end of the Tour de France, which was moved from July because of Covid-19. 

The Tour passed very close to our hotel so we simply walked out and watched them zoom by. 

I had hoped to see Paris while tourists from other countries were banned, and I did. We ate at outside cafes; we got off the Metro the one time that it was crowded and we felt it wasn't safe; we browsed at museums and took pictures without other people marring their perfection. 

The Rodin Museum

A train ride home from Paris and we returned to normal life, like fixing up our old house. 

Earl painted the doors and shutters, perhaps Cornwall blue

October 2020:
Then Earl promptly headed out on a hike to Spain along El Camino de Santiago

He definitely chose the paths less taken

As October neared an end and the warm days grew shorter, we planned a girls' trip to Collioure along the coast. 

It's a charming town and sometimes you just crave the Mediterranean. We had lunch outdoors and were surprised at the number of tourists there. 

Then we headed to a more deserted beach and did some bellydancing. 

Freestyling!

A new lockdown was announced and we arranged one more meal in a restaurant on the night before the confinement. 

Only six people at a table, so we had to split up. 

Women at one table

Men at the other. 

And that is the last time we ate in a restaurant. 

November 2020:

The lockdown lasted through November. We weren't as careful, inviting friends to join us for drinks or meals. Going on lots of walks in the mountains and wondering what Christmas would be like this year. 

This is just a walk I took one morning from my house.
Around every corner is another beautiful mountain. 

We had a sneak Thanksgiving celebration with American friends, technically still not allowed to gather with friends. 

December 2020:

All of that lockdown let us paint our living room. It used to be an electric blue and now the walls are cream-colored with the staircase wall a gray green. I loved the new look, although it took three coats of the cream for Earl to cover the blue. 

Who knows what may come next. Maybe a new chandelier

Then on December 20th, we flew from Barcelona to Dublin to celebrate Christmas with Grace and Jack. And Tucker flew from Columbus to Dublin to meet us. 

Tucker and Earl in the lights of Dublin

For some reason, Ireland was continuing to let Americans fly into their airport. Tucker had a Covid test before he came and we got very lucky that now of us contracted the virus during our travel. 

Tucker, Grace and Jack at St. Stephen's Green on a sunny day. 

We spent our evenings playing family games and I went out each morning to get coffee at Starbucks, one of the things I miss from home. 

We arrived home safely, in spite of countries closing their borders. 

So we managed to travel to the U.S., France, Spain and Ireland in a year without travel. That's nothing to complain about. 

I've gotten to see two of my three children, even though I haven't seen Spencer or my parents since February. 

I'm hopeful that we'll get the vaccine and my parents will get the vaccine and we'll be able to reunite in the coming months. 

Here's hoping for a 2021 without so much excitement. 

A Quick Visit to Paris

I love traveling to Paris. It always fills me with joy — all the beauty and the history! 

Lights on the water

The sky was much darker than shows in this picture. The lights reflecting on the water looked like an impressionist painting. 

This was the last picture I took on Friday. 

What came before? 

A new perspective

From here you can’t see the ruined parts of Notre Dame. 

An archway along the river

We walked along the Seine. 

A shot of Pont du Carrousel

The views are always beautiful. 

Here we are at Place du Carrousel

I was trying to capture the light of the setting sun that shone on our faces.  

The sun behind the pyramid at the Louvre.
They didn't have water in all of the fountains by the entrance to the Louvre

A gap in the trees showed the Eiffel Tower and the Seine

Finally the lights came up on The Eiffel Tower. 

Mostly we’re feeling safe as we travel. We occasionally see someone without a mask but not often. We haven’t eaten inside any restaurants. 

We’ll scope out how big the crowd is for the Tour de France before we decide what to do. We hope to be able to see the riders on Sunday as they finish. 

Mourning the Loss of Notre Dame

As I prepare to go to bed tonight, flames are still shooting from the top of Notre Dame. The spire has collapsed and the roof of the nave has fallen in.
On Friday, as I walked from our hotel to the train station, I crossed a bridge and saw the beautiful cathedral. I took a picture. It was the last picture I took in Paris.

I can't believe that it will never be the same. 

While Earl and I were spending a few days in Paris, we found ourselves strolling around Notre Dame several times. 

I asked Earl if he had been inside and was surprised to find that he hadn't. I've even attended Mass at Notre Dame. 

We stopped to look at the bells displayed in a line outside. 

New ones were purchased to replace these in celebration of the 850th anniversary. 

850 years! I can't even fathom something that old. 

Our country won't be 800 years old until 2576.

Me trying to coyly pose along with crowds of other people in front of Notre Dame. 

My morning run took me past Notre Dame

You can see the scaffolding around the church where they were working on it. 

I hope that they find the fire was caused by a mistake in the work going on rather than an act of terrorism.

At the same time, I try to imagine a worker with a power tool in hand who started a fire that destroyed an iconic building. That just seems too mundane. 

Paris will never be the same. 

L'Atelier des Lumières - Van Gogh

Last year, as I reviewed some of the best things we had done in France, I included two visits to Carrières de Lumières and L'Atelier des Lumières, huge art installations that projected artwork onto walls and played music to go along with art. One was near Nimes in the South of France and the other in Paris. You can read my blog posts about them here and here.
When I learned that the exhibit this year would be Van Gogh, I had to go. Since Earl was flying out of Paris, we made a mini-vacation out of it with two nights in Paris.
I bought the tickets for the art show ahead of time, which was a wise choice because the tickets were sold out when we arrived in line. We went for the earliest show at 10 a.m. People seemed anxious about getting in, but there really was no rush because you can stay as long as you want, and there are plenty of places to watch the show.
We got in quite early and I had told Earl that I had been there before and didn't like the view from the balcony. As we perched on a round wooden seat, a guard came by and told us the best view was from the balcony, and there were comfortable seats. We decided to move to the balcony, but I should have listened to my own advice.
We could get some panoramic pictures from up high, but watching from the balcony was kind of removed from being down on the floor in the midst of the color, feeling the images move around me and getting a bit dizzy, as if the colors really were washing over me.

A panoramic view from the balcony

A photo I took on the floor when we stayed for the second airing of the Van Gogh exhibit

More irises

A shot of Starry Night from the balcony

The sun over the bare trees

One of the special things about the exhibit is that the creators find motion in the pictures and add that to the artwork.
I tried to record a few short videos that show the motion.

After the Van Gogh, there was a Japanese Dream exhibit. I captured part of that from the floor, which is where I recommend you plant yourself if you make it to the exhibit.

These look 3D, don't they?

Earl enjoyed the show, but admitted he preferred the giant limestone cave where the exhibit takes place in the South of France. Perhaps we'll get a chance to see it there again if we have any visitors this year.
Well worth the cost of 14.90 Euros for the ticket. Go if you can.