(Carlton Cards) I found this card to send to my turkeys in SP since I will not be with them for Thanksgiving. Too funny. I miss those turkeys. I will visit them soon. I promise. Today's question of the day... "What's your favorite recipe, madame?" Asked by one of my 6th graders after she told …
Category: friends
Random thoughts on a chilly November night
It's Veteran's Day. Armistice Day in France. The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. I have visited the site of the signing of the Armistice, the replica of the train car tucked away into the forest near Compiègne in northern France. The original one was burned by Hitler. Merci, Ghislaine. Thank …
Therapy
The BFF and I call our morning walks therapy sessions. And believe me, they are. We talk about just about anything and everything. This summer, we walked 3 miles every day that we could, usually beginning around 6:00 am. It gets hot and humid here in the North Carolina Piedmont and schvitzing (Yiddish for sweating- it …
Paris by proxy
Joanie on her pony Jeanne d'Arc, 1874, Emmanuel Frémiet, 4 rue des Pyramides, Paris 01 Okay, so I am not really sure that I am using "by proxy" properly, even though I looked it up on-line at Urban Dictionary. by proxy: the ability to do or be something without actually physically doing it. "John was …
Bleu Part Deux
As I was driving home from the mountains today, I realized that I left off some bleu/blue things that I love. (I could blame it on Moo and Mama Mildred for distracting me, I guess.) Do you ever have the blues? In France, the saying is avoir le cafard- to have the cockroach. Where on …
Les photos de Fanny
I would like for you to meet my French sister, Fanny. We have been friends since we were introduced by Olivier in... let's see, March 2010 (thank you, Google photos!). Fanny was Olivier's son's English teacher at the collège (middle school in France) in Villeneueve-lez-Avignon. Olivier and I became friends through a website called French …
Le 14 juillet 2017
Rue Montorgueil, Paris, Claude Monet, 1878, Musée d'Orsay (detail) Should I wish France Bonne Fête nationale or Joyeux 14 juillet or Bonne Bastille or ... just what? Does it even matter? I could sing La Marseillaise. The bloody version or La Marseillaise de la Paix by Chanson plus bifluorée. Bertrand of My Private Paris turned …
Sean of the South
(photo courtesy of Jackie Thompson Reagan) AKA Sean Dietrich. One of my heroes. I feel as if we are long lost cousins or I am his long lost aunt. I consider him and his wife, Jamie, my dear friends although I have never met them. We send messages. I've begged Jamie for recipes and she …
Paris has to wait (for me)
Finally. The movie made it to Durham. Arles Lucy and I went to see it a couple of nights ago. It was the second time for her. She was very tightlipped and gave me no hints about what was in store. Impressive, AL! And merci. So, I will not go into the details. But let's …
Summer Vacation Day 1: A porch with a view
Well, Summer Vacation, the 2017 Edition, is officially underway. There is the minor detail of about 20 student comments that still have to be written, but I have until Monday at 5:00 pm. Hours and hours. At the last minute, I decided to book myself into a writer's retreat. Remember, in the last post I …
the sabbatical chef 