Monday 17 January 2011

new year

hello everyone -
you are probably surprised to actually see that I am here!
I know....it has been such a long time

the holidays were not too bad........very subdued, of course; but not too bad
after Xmas, we brought my mother back with us and went to France
we spent New Years in Paris

mother and my husband, S


yummy seafood! wish we had the self-catering place here

S and mom discussing the finer points of lettuce

looking to Notre Dame from the bridge that links Ile Saint Louis with the rest of the city
I have never been to this part of Paris, but boy do I recommend it!
It is full of darling little shops (altho probably quite spendy)
We found a fantastic Lebanese place for lunch
Originally, we had reservations at another place for New Years Eve, but luckily,
it was changed to a place near our hotel in the South Bank.
I had no idea Paris was such a scary place New Year's Eve!
We kept seeing fences being put up along the Champs Elysees and armed policemen patrolling around
I doubt we would have been able to get any sort of taxi that night to get either to or from the restaurant

the place we ended up having dinner in was a lovely old restaurant - walking distance from our hotel
a set menu that ended up having about 6 or 7 courses! the food was lovely - the atmosphere was lovely
except for the couple sitting behind us; they spent the entire evening taking pictures of each other and then spent the rest of the time on their phones.......they barely said anything to each other, yet seemed in good moods - like this is how they always "spend time together" - seemed a bit sad to me.......they could have been anywhere with anyone;
paying more attention to their phones

anyway; we had a glass of champagne to toast the new year; new beginnings
and then literally waddled home!

very atmospheric shop front - couldn't tell if it was actually ever open

quite annoyed the photo on the bottom is a bit blurry
but anyway; the two trees
the "fluffy" one was a tree covered in some sort of fuzzy stuff, like someone had flocked the tree
we saw them all over the place in all sorts of colours
(even a sad little black one that had been abandoned on the street)
this one was in the window of a very fancy shop and was covered in beautiful bright pink roses
the other tree I liked in contrast with the shabby shutters
it was sitting outside a first floor window above the street on Rue Mouffetard, my favourite area in Paris

after Paris, we took a train down to Sancerre where we had rented a gîte for almost a week.
I will send a few photos of that next time

I am very happy you haven't given up on me and have come back to see what/where I am
I am looking forward to the new year and all the new things I have planned

my biggest hurdle is to actually get moving and start
emptying out my head a bit and letting more creativity in is my first goal.........
or at least beginning to empty and let some calmness and quiet in

hope everyone is doing well and looking forward to 2011!

__a





4 comments:

  1. Welcome home Anne .......Paris is the best .....x

    ReplyDelete
  2. Argh! I think I just pressed a key and lost my comment. Sorry if it appears twice. Anyhoo...

    Happy New Year, Anne! I've never been to Paris (not yet!) so I enjoyed going on this virtual tour of the city with you. The French are really good with presentation, aren't they? No balls of lettuce wrapped up in plastic there...or maybe there are but let's pretend that they are always displayed in such pretty wicker baskets!

    I'm glad that your mother was able to spend Christmas in Paris with you and your husband. What a great idea!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Anne,
    I have never visited Paris and I would love to go.
    I hope you have a great New Year!

    ReplyDelete
  4. i'll never forget the new year's eve i spent in paris w/ old boyfriend and matt/becky and David Householder! it was wild beyond belief....frenchies literally turning cars over on the Champs Elysee! love, love, love the artistic photos from your trip to France...and so thankful you took Mom to ease her back into traveling without Dad....you're a wonderful daughter, and the best sister a gal could have! keep creating....that's what you do best..

    ReplyDelete