A quiet day at home

I haven't gone into Paris this week as much as I usually do. I have to go in tomorrow for lunch with some fellow board members of AARO and I went in on Tuesday, to the library, but that's it. When you stay home, you get sales calls. Paul accepted one and yesterday a couple of guys came over to tell us our roof beams were being eaten away by bugs and we needed to reinstall insulation, all for the "low" price..... You get the picture. So, this morning, Paul took a good look at the contract and had some reservations. He also took a good look in the attic and decided that the beams were fine (he checked by trying to poke a screwdriver in) and they did their calculation as if there were no insulation already there, so the savings between what we do have and what they want to replace it with will not be so great. That said, we are not entirely against investing in better insulation, just not at that price.
When Emma was still here, we went to see "Maison La Roche", a house designed by le Corbusier. It's not the first house of his I've seen. There's the Villa Savoye in Poissy that I visited a couple of years ago. Anyway, this Maison La Roche is very small. It was built with the Maison Jeanneret (Le Corbusier's brother's house) in a small impasse in the 16th arrondissement. La Roche was a bachelor art collector, so most of the space is his gallery. There is great use light. There's a roof garden that we could not see because it was raining. It's very inexpensive to visit, only €3. When you look out the back windows you could almost be in Philly, on Panama St. looking out at the courtyards and backs of the houses on Pine Street. We spent more time investigating the streets around the impasse trying to find the ones whose backs looked so nice to us.

The days are getting longer

Isn't that a great photo? Louis took it. I'm not going to put up more of his photos, because they are his to share, not mine. If you're family, then you know how to get in touch with him to ask for the link to his album. Anyway, this picture was taken on Christmas Eve, or, I should say, Paul's birthday. I was wearing a necklace and big Christmassy earrings, sure to catch Aurelia's attention, AND Rocky had just climbed up on my lap (more like my chest!). Aurelia LOVES Rocky. Rocky, going on 18, is very patient with her. I've never seen a cat so patient.
Yesterday evening, as I was walking home, I noticed how pretty the clouds were. This was remarkable for two reasons: until late afternoon, it had been rainy and overcast and it was 5 p.m. (17h. in local lingo). 5 and still light out! I ducked into a shop to pick up some things for dinner and it was night when I came out, so the days are not long, yet, but they are getting noticeably longer and that is a great sign.
Tuesday, Emma came home for a little break in her activity. She and G. are going from place to place around France picking up ideas and techniques and looking for a place where they might settle for a while. They find the places to stay via an association: Wwoofing (http://www.wwoof.fr/). This might interest some of you in the States who keep saying you are looking for interesting ways of visiting France. In fact, the association is international, so it might be an interesting inexpensive way to visit lots of places in exchange for participating in the projects.
This afternoon, we're going over to Louis and Gwen's to see the latest work on their apartment, the bathroom. This should be about it, now. They can stop and breathe a little while before they get the urge to sell and move on.

Happy New Year 2011 - Bonne Année, Bonne Santé

Facebook status updates - a fairly good reflection of the year.
Les mises à jours sur Facebook, un bon résumé de l'année.

Paul and I are fine. The kids are fine. We lost several (too many) friends in 2010 and hope not to have such a series next year. Paul's mother passed away a month shy of her 101st birthday. But, all in all, we had a good year and can only wish for the same for us and for you in 2011.

Paul et moi, nous allons bien. Les enfants aussi. Nous avons perdu plusieurs (trop) amis en 2010 et espérons ne pas renouveler la série l'an prochain. Le mère de Paul est décédée à un mois de son 101è anniversaire. Le tout pour le tout, nous avons eu quand même une bonne année et ne pouvons que souhaiter un semblable pour nous comme pour vous en 2011.
Our month:

The Husaunndees came down from England -- all four, so we got to see Geoff and Charlotte, too. We celebrated Paul's birthday, the 24th, all together: Louis, Gwen, and Anne came in from Paris. Emma is still in the south of France and was not able to come up to Nogent. Because of all the snow we had before Christmas, last minute train travel was not recommended. We had a nice birthday dinner, special to Paul's order: fois gras, lamb, sweet potato tsimis and carrot cake. The next morning, Aurelia got up at about 7:00 as usual and we had to wait patiently for everyone else to come down and discover all the presents. There wasn't enough room under the tree; the sofa was also occupied. Louis and Gwen left for lunch at Gwen's parents and the rest of us settled for a lunch of roast beef. The Pachters came over later in the afternoon. The idea was to recreate our Christmas get-togethers of the past, but Caroline and her family were stuck in the snow in Brussels and Steve and his family were stuck at home with sick children. We did manage to have a good time and hope that next year all the next generation will be able to come.
The Husaunndees left on Tuesday. Paul and I went to a funeral, Jean-Luc Moretti, another loss to cancer. He was a former neighbor from a couple of streets above ours and companion to Dominique, whom we've known since Emma and Maud met at Ecole Maternelle (nursery school!). He was a municipal councilman and two days after he died another councilman also died, again prostate cancer.
Paul and I spent a very quiet New Year's Eve together on Friday. We dined on fois gras and oysters with an endive (chicory) salad, cheese and fruit for dessert.