curi·ous {Old French curios} Drawn to investigate, prick up the ears, ponder for the sake of pondering. Enticed by mysteriously labeled bottles.
vo·luptu·ary {Late Latin volupturius} A lass devoted to the pursuit of pleasure. An unabashed epicurean, hedonist, libertine, sensualist, lotus-eater.
Perhaps any veracity in the myth regarding the allegedly endless words Eskimos have for snow (first perpetuated in Franz Boas‘ 1911 The Handbook of North American Indians) would simply reflect a need to stamp back the boredom of talking about it for weeks and months on end.
Valentine’s Day Greetings to you, from a hasn’t-been-frozen-enough-to-walk-across-in-thirty-years Wannsee [...]
Tho’ you may think it strange/Wine and women play the mischief/With a boy who’s loose with change/They’ll never want to see a rake or plow/And who the deuce can parleyvous a cow? Oh how ya gonna keep em down on the farm/After they’ve seen Paree?
This post WWl tin-pan alley tune looped on my personal [...]
New Years Eve! A Blue Moon! Le Réveillon de la Saint-Sylvestre (New Years Eve feast) at Bistrot Paul Bert! A relatively quiet and very tasty evening of foie gras (Alfonso), truffles (Kim), and a splendid wine from Languedoc-Roussillon (Côtes Catalanes) winery Le Petite Baigneuse, Grand Largue.
Then the fire brigade, who have a station just down [...]
A nighttime pilgrimage to the Tour Eiffel, by which I mean a five+ mile, three hour stroll through le Marais, past Notre Dame, and along the Seine. Heaven.
When we arrived at the foot of the tower, it began to practice for the first ever rainbow-hued 400 LED light show on New Years Eve. Some things, [...]
A very extravagant Christmas Eve spent on the Rive Gauche at La Coupole, a brasserie that opened in Montparnasse in 1927. The mood was lovely, humming and old-school. A birthday was righteously celebrated with singing and sparklers, our waiter took my camera and photographed the entire restaurant for us, and when someone dropped a large [...]
Sunday morning snow storm and meeting my honey at the Gare de l’Est (built 1849, doubled in size 1931, a departure point for French troops in WWI). Or I should say judging by this photograph, I was unable to make it and sent my freezing, sleep-deprived crazy twin instead. Train forty-five minutes late, open-air interior [...]
Snow! And more of it forecast for the next days. Low of 14 degrees. Can’t feel my nose. Now I’m really missing my honey. I send snow, Satie, and Cyd Charisse to Alfonso.
Part two of the day involved much walking, to follow research trail, and then across the Seine, homing-pigeon-like, to the Wheel of Excellence (the new Grande Roue) at the end of Champs-Élysées. After a long wait in the rain we made the loop in the sky and right when we got to the top la [...]
I discovered a love of trains in the years I traveled from NY to Philly and Washington to teach. Train travel is like moving through time, rather than space, or outside time. It conjures not quite longing, but a feeling equally layered and illusive. With a soundtrack, I would have been my own earnest 80s [...]
Another big editing day, thus just a picture from the living room window of the rainy, lovely, very busy corner. The bakery, still open, fills this room with baguette vapors every morning. Perfect for combating the screaming and plate smashing in the spookily dark, gorgeously spiral staircased passageway at 6am. C’est la passion Française! Well, [...]