VACANCES

Wednesday, 30 June 2010

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Juin se termine ...

J'accueille Juillet avec espérance ...

...C'est le mois de mon mariage, des enfants, des rires au jardin, des dîners joyeux et des vacances.

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Bouquet de fleurs de courgettes du potager de mon amie A.
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Aussi belles à regarder que délicieuses à déguster ...

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Bricolage de mari-chéri !!!

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Le Gourmand à sa cueillette ...

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Confitures en vue !!!

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Et, si tout va bien, dans quelques jours je fermerai les volets mais confierai la clef si envies de baignades, laisserai la nourriture des chats dans le distributeur, arroserai le jardin, rangerai les confitures dans le cabanon et ... je m'escaperai ...

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Je m'en vais REver ailleurs...
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(Photo tendresse de mon petit-fils Guillaume)
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A vous qui partez, à vous qui restez, à vous qui passez, je souhaite un superbe mois de Juillet.

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A BIENTÔT

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Clown Lady

Tuesday, 29 June 2010

Since I moved to France eight years ago, I have lived in the same neighborhood. Prior to that, I moved every few years. It's good to settle down and get to know where you live and get to know your neighbors: people in the same apartment building, shop keepers, fellow mothers at the square and .... Clown Lady.

Clown Lady has been in my neighborhood as long as I have and then some. No one knows who she is, where precisely she lives or whether she is a man or a woman. She has the most incredible wardrobe--dozens of purses, shoes, hats, umbrellas, cloaks, coats, scarves--ahhhh, it's enough to make your head spin!

The neighborhood is her stage, the inhabitants her audience and she never fails to put on a good show. She dresses a part and either strolls around as if she hadn't a care in the world or she picks a place and poses; lifting a hem just enough so we may admire her stockings and shoes, titling her head coquettishly so we may note the complex design of her hat, sashaying down the sidewalk so we may see exactly how her nineteen-fifties purse is coordinated to match her nineteen-sixties swing coat.

Clown Lady, reminiscent of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane, goes a little heavy on the make up. She does a couple centimeters of white on her face, gigantic red lips and loads of eyeliner .... hence the moniker.

Gros bisous et a demain!

Love, Charley

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Ancient Doors

Monday, 28 June 2010

The old part of Lyon, Vieux Lyon, has been around since Romans times when it was called Lugdunum. Vieux Lyon then had its own personal Renaissance 600 years ago. The buildings have a distinct Italian feeling in their design and their colorful yellows, pinks and orange. I will devote an entire blog to these buildings eventually, but today, I want to focus on the doors of these 600-year-old buildings.

As I walk by them, I easily imagine the people and events that have passed through them ....

Some have been restored or replaced.

An excellent example of restoration on the left; the entire building was recently fully restored. 

Others perhaps well taken care of ....

These doors are par for the course in Vieux Lyon. There is nothing like a nice weekend stroll through the lively neighborhood. Where the walls echo the past and the doors whisper their secrets, beckoning for you to open them and see what is behind .... 

Gros bisous et a demain!

Love, Charley

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Tete en bois

Sunday, 27 June 2010

Tete en bois or guele de bois translated, head of wood or face of wood = hangover.

Oy!

Gros bisous et a demain!

Love, Charley

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Chronique d'un dimanche ensoleillé

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Il n'y a plus de roses dans mon jardin ?

Elles refleuriront plus tard ...

En attendant, j'ai plaisir à les retrouver dans la maison, comme avec ce délicat bouquet offert, roses de jardin délicieusement parfumées, pivoines et roses anciennes, disposées dans une tête d'hortensia blanche. un rêve romantique ...

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Où encore avec ce petit pot trouvé ce matin au vide-greniers de Fréjus.
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Mais aussi deux bols digoin, 1 euro, pour tenir compagnie à celui déniché à Cogolin et au petit bleu piqué à ma maman ...
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Toujours des roses ... mais de chez mon fournisseur préféré, ma maman !

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Un vase joliment travaillé, j'y mettrai des roses bien sûr... mais pas que ,

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et trois petits bouddhas souriants pour le bureau de mari chéri, tous du vide-greniers ...

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Il est presque 14 heures, la confiture bouillotte sur le feu, c'est un dimanche serein, juste lui et moi ...

A 17 heures j'irai voir danser ma Caroline chérie ...

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Amitiés à vous qui passez

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Eddy Izzard in French!

Friday, 25 June 2010

Excellent!!



Groses bisous et a demain!

Love, Charley

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Offrandes ...

Thursday, 24 June 2010

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J'avais trouvé jolie l'idée d'un laurier blanc autour de la piscine, l'été dernier dans le Luberon ...

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Planté cet automne, encore un peu jeune, mais une promesse de douceur ...

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Légèreté et délicatesse des fleurs de troènes ...
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Le jardin m'offre de nouveaux trésors, plus modestes mais tout aussi délicieux ...
... Et puis ...
La cueillette !
Pour le plaisir de ma famille, de mes amis, et pour le mien !
Car partager l'offrande est un plaisir rare ...
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Sans oublier mari chéri qui serait même prêt à bricoler pour de la confiture de figues !
...Demain le chaudron sera ressorti du cabanon, il va chauffer !
Et aussi tartes aux prunes, clafoutis, j'aime lorsque l'été a le goût des gourmandises maison ...
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Fruits NON TRAITES, prêts à déguster ...
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Amitiés à vous qui passez

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(J'ai retrouvé "presque" tous mes liens !)

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Strasbourg

Tuesday, 22 June 2010

Strasbourg in January. Cold! But charming. We lucked out and had two sunny days so we were able to stroll about at our leisure. 

Strasbourg is in the Alsace region of France, right along the border of Germany. It is the seat of the European Parliament as well as the European Union. Over the centuries it has changed hands several times between France and Germany; it has a distinct German flair. 

It has a cool train station which is very old and protected by a modern "shield". 

An excellent museum of modern art, Musee d'Art Moderne et Contemporain de Strasbourg and I mean really excellent!

One of the oldest philharmonic orchestras in western Europe. 

A great Christmas decoration market.

Strasbourg is one of the oldest Jewish communities in Europe. An incredibly beautiful synagogue on Quai Kleber did not survive the Nazi invasion. 

Great food, although you won't want to eat for days after because it is heavy. My favorite dish was the La choucroute de poisson or fish sauerkraut - yum! 

A little bone marrow? Sheesh, those were BIG bones!

And of course we couldn't help but imbibe in a few (or perhaps several) cool libations. Yeah, those were big too.

And last but not least, the cathedral of our lady, the sixth tallest church in the world. 

Voila!

Groses bisous et a demain.

Love, Charley

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Stop! In the name of love

Monday, 21 June 2010

First of all, you have to know that French stop lights have the overhead thing going on, plus a nifty smaller version on each side of the street.

Okay, got the visual?

All over Lyon, people modify the red light on the side traffic lights to look like a heart.

Share the love, baby, yeah! Seriously though, it always puts a smile on my face when I see one. It feels like a positive energy, pay it forward kind of thing. And what's not to love about that?

Groses bisous et a demain!

Love, Charley

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En ce premier jour de l'Eté ...

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... instants précieux, si fragiles,

...qui font espérer, croire en des jours meilleurs.

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Offrandes gourmandes ...
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Première récolte ...

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Bel été à vous qui passez

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The Empire of Death!

Sunday, 20 June 2010

Stop, this is the Empire of Death! reads the sign over the entryway to the Parisian Catacombs.

Begin at Place Denfert-Rochereau and descend a small stone stairways down 19 meters.

It is dark, damp and absolutely creepy and goes on for miles.

I love it!

In the Parisian cemeteries, the poor had been buried in mass graves for centuries. Human waste and disease began leaking into the cities well water. In the 18th century, Parisian officials decided it was time for action. They transferred millions of human remains into underground quarries.

The bones were arranged in artistic patterns. 

There is graffiti in the catacombs that dates back to the 18th century. 

Members of the French Resistance hid from the Nazis in the catacombs. 

Umberto Eco's novel Foucault's Pendulum speaks of the catacombs as being a resting place for documents from the Knights Templar. 

Barbara Hambly wrote of the catacombs being a home to  a 600 year old vampire in Those Who Hunt The Night. 

Go ahead, next time you're in Paris, I dare you to have a look! And please let me know if you think there are any hauntings....

Sweet dreams!

Groses bisous et a demain!

Love, Charley

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Un peu de ciel bleu ...

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Quelques images d'espérance prises hier soir par mon petit-fils Guillaume ...

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Que s'éloignent enfin les nuages.

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Que revive le Var !

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Les blessures tellement visibles tout au long de la route, le chemin sera difficile,

semé d'embûches et de peines,

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mais la Vie sera la plus forte.

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Merci à toutes celles qui m'ont adressé des pensées d'amitié.

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