Spring and I think of Paris, well, April in Paris, chestnuts in blossom. Although I don't recall ever having seen chestnut trees in Paris. But I have known some cafés intimately. I was a regular at a café near the Place Colette, off the rue de Rivoli. It broke my heart when it closed its doors after a long, long life. My other haunt was Le Malakoff  at Place du Trocadéro, le Troc as we referred to it. It's still there, I'm happy to say. And the café at Gare de l'Est, the suburban railway station; I had many a café-crème there while waiting for my train.

Remembering my husband, the tea drinker

  
Simplicity is the removal of the useless and the unnecessary--source unknown

La nostalgie

Awash in nostalgia.

I was looking for something on google, when I got it into my head to go to the google.france and search for the Lycée (high school) Janson de Sailly in Paris. Oh, my! I almost got weepy. When I was 16, I won a scholarship to Janson de Sailly, and it was the best time of my life. This is a photo of the entrance -- it hasn't changed at all.

I also found a photo of Place Colette, near the Palais Royal. I have a photo of myself standing under the sign, but who knows where it is -- I have so many photos.

I have many bad memories, but I have some spectacularly good ones, too. I prefer to remember the good ones, and this is one of them.

Bastille Day Memories

Happy quatorze juillet to my French friends.

Picture this:

Me, age 16, on my way to Lycée Janson de Sailly to meet up with my classmates to go to the Bastille Day parade. Coming out of the Metro train, I break my wrist thanks to a cute, curly-haired boy.....but that's another story. I heard a crack! But I didn't think it was broken, and continued on my merry way. By the time I got to the lycée, I was in agony. I phoned my mother, who was in the suburbs, and told her what had happened. She said it sounded like I'd broken my wrist and told me to get someone at the school to take me to the hospital right away.

Half and hour later, we were at the Marmottan Hospital, where X-rays showed I had a smashed scafoid and I was given a plaster cast and pain pills.

Arm in a sling, we continued on to the Champs Elysées to watch the parade.

allonzenfans!