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