Fin de mois

C'est le 25 août. C'est le St. Louis. Bon, je ne suis pas catholique, mais on aime me rappeler que c'est le St. Louis, alors je me souviens. Donc, Bonne Fête, Louis. C'était l'anniversaire de mariage de mes parents. Je crois aussi que c'est l'anniversaire du décès de mon grand père, Louis Glaser. C'est aussi la libération de Paris, 1944. C'est parce que c'est une journée chargée de souvenirs que j'y pense.
Je suis rentrée de mon court voyage aux US depuis maintenant plus d'une semaine. Le décalage horaire est terminé ; c'était long à partir cette fois. Pour ceux qui n'ont pas lu la lettre en anglais, je résume en disant que c'était bien. La famille à Pittsburgh va bien, mes copines de lycée vont bien. Il faisait un peu frisquet, mais beau.
Nous attendons l'arrivée de Ken et Sandy à la fin de la semaine. Il faudrait préparer un peu. Je vais voir si le son et lumière de Meaux se produit pendant leur séjour. Paul bricole un peu -- le stricte minimum. Surtout, il se rattrape en lecture. Je ne sais pas s'il viendra randonner ce mercredi le long de la Marne, vers l'ancien chocolaterie Meunier, qui est maintenant le quartier générale de Nestlé France et dont les visites doivent être réservées des mois à l'avance. Dommage -- on ne la visitera pas. Je me suis acheté un sac avec une vessie d'eau qui peut contenir 3 litres -- j'espère que cela évitera le problème que j'ai eu le mois dernier -- et des bâtons de marche pour soulager le dos.
Les Jeux sont finis -- je devrais être un peu moins derrière l'écran de télé. Il faudrait sortir un peu plus, mais le temps ne s'y prêtait pas la semaine dernière. Aujourd'hui, il fait très beau et je sors. A la prochaine...

Before I catch the plane

This has been a great visit! But before I start talking about the trip and the reunion, I should start with Anne's news. Anne has found an apartment and is waiting for the current owner to return from his vacation to sign the first set of papers! It's a one-bedroom ground-floor apartment in Paris near the Gare de Lyon, on a pedestrian passage with little foot traffic, in view of a square, and next to a "velib" stand (in case she decides to ride a bike). I've only seen pictures and am anxious to see it in person. She's put some pictures up on Picasa, but you'll have to get in touch with her if you want her to send you the link. As I arrived in the US, I had a text message announcing that she and the owner had agreed on a price, so that was a wonderful start to the trip.
As usual, it's always nice visiting Jon's family in Pittsburgh! It's almost like going home, now. I didn't get lost at all on the way in from the airport and didn't even have to look at the map. This time, everyone was home. Tobi and I set out the very next day to go shopping - a girls' day out with shopping, lunch and a manucure! And then on Friday, we went into Pittsburgh énd settled the estate matters and that is now done. That meant that the next days were really just relaxing and hanging out.
It's always strange to see national coverage of the Olympics. No matter what country you're in, the coverage is totally chauvinistic - all about "us", whoever "us" is. Well, I'm in the States, so "us" is "US". A bit much after a few days.
On Tuesday, I headed to the Catskills for our '68 Girls' High Band and Orchestra reunion. Joan, who could only stay for dinner on Tuesday, and Gail, who had returned to her Balkan camp for the morning, aren't in this photo, but Erica, Barbara and Bonnie are. And Bonnie's daughter, Sarah, was with us! Morty and Mike, Erica and Barbara's husbands were off finding birds to watch. After 40 years, we just seemed to pick up where we left off. Over the years, I have seen Erica, Gail and Barbara occasionally - Barbara, at the end of June in Paris, in fact - but still, I hadn't seen Bonnie or Joan. This was great! Our vocal chords got a gabfest workout. And I learned a new card game: "laugh-a-dora" or "la fedora"? Probably a childhood invention of Erica's cousin that never got spelled out. I'll go with the "laugh-a-dora" spelling because the result is uncontrolled laughter!
Then I had to return to Pittsburgh to catch my flight. I did call to see how much it would cost me to leave the car in Philly and and catch the international flight there, but changing the car contract was outrageously expensive, so I didn't even bother asking US Airways if I could skip the Pittsburgh to Philly segment. Actually, I enjoy these day-long drives admiring the scenery and listening to NPR. Last night, I wrote a note to Arnaud about the Binghamton area since he'll be moving there, soon, for a couple of years.
Funny thing about the hotel I stayed in - no cell phone access, but free internet, so I was able to use Skype to call Jon about something. I wonder if hotels are blocking cell phones to try to force you to use the land line. Can you imagine? A local call from wherever I was cost a minimum of $2.00! But if movie theaters can block cell phones (and I certainly appreciate that!) I bet hotels can do it, too!

A walk along the Canal de l'Ourcq

vf sous le trait à la fin du texte en anglais

Daniel and Simone led an Ile de France walk along the Canal de l'Ourcq near Meaux. I think most Anglophone readers think of French mustard (the other mustard city is Dijon) and cheese (Brie de Meaux) when they hear of Meaux. It's has archeological remnants that go back to the gallo-roman times (late Roman Empire). It was occupied by the Vikings in the 9th century and was a major city in the Middle Ages as part of Champagne. The cathedral is a Gothic cathedral started in the 12th century and there are still other buildings around the cathedral from that period. The city was a major prize in the Hundred Years War and was occupied by the English for a short time. So, when you get off the train to find the canal, you do a little sight-seeing, too.

As we walked through the town, one of the Americans among us remarked on the beautiful Bossuet gardens. (Did I mention that Bossuet was the Bishop of Meaux in the 17th century and has a street, gardens, buildings, etc. named after him, so you can't not know that Meaux is very proud of him?) Back to the gardens - they are not very big, but they are impecable, and the remark was that the French take great pride in their public gardens and spend the money to maintain them. That led to some discussion of public spending, public servants and taxes. My own feeling is that the French do not enjoy paying high taxes, but they do understand and appreciate public service, including beautiful gardens.

I met Ann again. Our first walk together was last year at Provins, but I guess, since she and her husband went on the long hike and Paul and I stayed in the town to sight-see, we didn't talk much. We did partner up on a later walk in the fall - the stragglers. And we straggled last Wednesday, too. And here comes the "small world" story: Ann and her husband do not live in Paris; they are here on a temporary assignment. They live near Alexandria, VA. So, I reminisced that I had an aunt and uncle and cousins who had lived near Alexandria, in Hollin Hills, for a long, long time. BINGO. Ann has lived in Hollin Hills for the past 45 years and knew Hal and Bobbie! She says it hasn't changed much. The swimming pool is the same. The woods have grown and some of the trees are so tall, they allow more sun to get through for new growth - more flowers. But many of the people are the same. Children of the original owners have come back. And it's still a politically liberal community.

It was a very hot and sunny day last Wednesday. I guess it was a bit over-ambitious of me to think I could handle a 16-17 km. walk on a hot day just four weeks after the operation. I had to give up after about 12 km. Fortunately, we were near the intersection of the canal with a road and just down the road was a garage for agricultural equipment. The owner of the garage kindly drove me to the train station in Meaux and I had just enough time to get myself some more water (I'd already drunk all that I had started out with) before the train back to Paris arrived.

What else has been going on? Well, Louis turned 26. We celebrated his birthday with the Lebelles home from China on vacation. That's always a treat - well two treats: celebrating a birthday and seeing Pierre-Frédéric, Nadine and the kids. They look and sound great. They've got a busy couple of weeks of vacation, visiting family in the east and the south of France.

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Mercredi, il y avait une randonné le long du Canal de l'Ourcq autour de Meaux. Le cathédral est impressionant, mais je suis devenue un peu indifférente à l'architecture gothique. Et il n'y a pas de beaux vitraux. Il y a, bien sûr, la statue de Bossuet, l'évèque de Meaux à la fin du 17è siècle. Ils sont très fier de Bossuet à Meaux et on trouve son nom partout: rue, jardins, bâtiments, .... Les jardins sont impeccablement entretenus, ce qui a enclenché une discussion sur le service public vu par les américains et les français. (Nous étions sept: quatre français, deux américains et moi, un peu des deux). Mon sentiment est que les français n'aiment pas particulièrement payer des impôts mais ils reconnaissent et apprécient à quoi cela sert: les services publics, y compris les beaux jardins.

J'ai rencontré une autre marcheuse, Ann. Ce n'était pas notre première randonnée ensemble et comme nous ralentissons au bout d'un moment, nous nous retrouvons en queue ensemble. Et voilà - le moment "que le monde est petit !"Ann et son mari sont à Paris pour quelques mois seulement ; ils habitent dans la banlieue virginienne de Washington, DC. Alors, j'ai raconté que j'avais de la famille (tante, oncle et cousins) qui avaient habitaient un certain temps, eux aussi, près de Alexandria, à Hollin Hills précisément. BINGO. C'est justement là où ils habitent depuis 45 ans et ils ont connus Hal et Bobbie Williams ! (Harold était le frère de mon père.) Ah, que le monde est petit !

Il faisait très chaud mercredi et j'ai du sur-estimé mes capacités pour faire une marche de 16-17 km. J'ai du abandonné le groupe au bout de 12 km. environ. Nous étions heureusement près d'un pont où une route passait sur le canal. Un petit distance plus loin sur cette route ce trouvait un garage de matériel agricole et la propriétaire m'a très gentilement conduite à la gare de Meaux. J'ai eu tout juste le temps de prendre une bouteille d'eau avant l'arrivée du train pour Paris. J'avais bien bu pendant la marche, mais ce n'était pas assez, je présume. Le temps d'arriver à Paris, j'allais beaucoup mieux, déjà.

Quoi d'autre ? C'était l'anniversaire de Louis - 26 ans. Nous avons fêté son anniversaire au restaurant avec les Lebelles de Verrières, de retour de Chine pour les vacances. Ca fait toujours plaisir - 2 fois: fêter l'anniversaire et voir Pierre-Frédéric, Nadine et les enfants. Ils ont l'aire très en forme et ils ont quelques semaines de vacances bien remplies à rendre visites à la famille dans l'est et dans le sud.