We arrived in Paris on Thursday afternoon. See "Jeanie's Journal" page for the surprise we encountered there.
Jeanie's friend Solange was called to the South of France to be with her 97 year old mother who had fallen and hurt her head. Good thing we got to see Solange on our first stop in Paris. She let us stay in her house, though, so that was nice. She has a pet turtle in her back yard, and it is the same one we saw when we visited her in 1980. They live a long time! Here is a picture of her house and of her son Laurent holding the turtle,
We spent Friday evening with Laurent and is family. Here are some pictures of Laurent, wife Corrine and daughter Oceane.
Nice supper with Laurent's family. Solange has two sons, Laurent and Frederick. We had met both of them when we visited in 1980. Her husband has died since that visit. That's Oceane, Jeanie, Corrine, Laurent and John.
That's Laurent, Corrine and Oceane in Solange's back yard.
Above is Frederick and Isabelle with their three sons Timothee, Corentin, and Theophile.
Since we had already seen most of the sites in Paris, we spent a day browsing around the city.
Above is the Galleries LaFayette, a fancy department store in Paris, and then a view from the top of that store. People were lined up in the store to get their bottle of Chanel #5. Jeanie says these styles will be coming to the US in a couple of years, so she likes to check them out.
Note the slate roofs, which are prevalent in France. They were made by hand many years ago, but have held up fine. Some of the replacement slate roofs have been machine carved, but the older ones were hand carved. I didn't see any asphalt shingle roofs in France or Italy. No roofing granules sold here!
We head for home on Tuesday. Life will become simpler again, in an English speaking country.
We head for home on Tuesday. Life will become simpler again, in an English speaking country.
Jeanie writes:
Today we went to the fabulous LaFayette Galleries, which is a big store with the latest fashions and expensive perfumes, etc. John & I went out on the 8th floor terrace where we could see the whole city, because all of the surrounding buildings here only have 7 floors. There was a very nice cafe, where people could choose various courses: meats, salads, desserts, etc. John sat there while I checked out the fashions. Big clunky necklaces will be coming to the US even though, to me, they seem too extreme. Also tights that just go down to the ankles, worn with short skirts.
Today, just for practice, we took the train (15 minute ride from Colombe, where Salange lives) and then the metro to where we will get a bus to the airport on Tuesday. Good practice run. The Euro is down to 1 Euro = $1.22 now, which is good for US travelers. It was about $1.33 when we left.
A preview of coming fashions:
A preview of coming fashions:
Here they come! Watch for these fashions!
