Busy, Busy

I'm going to start with today and work backwards. It's been a busy month!
This morning started out with breakfast with Representative Carolyn Maloney (Dem. NY). AARO organized this breakfast on very short notice. If we had had more time, we might have organized a real event around her coming to Paris. She is the founder and chair of the Americans Abroad Caucus. She's looking for a Republican co-chair, so if your representative is a Republican, suggest it. She has been our champion in Congress. She talked a bit, but mostly she listened to us. We (AARO) gave her a certificate expressing our gratitude for all that she has done, so far. I'm honored to have attended this breakfast and to have met her.

Actually, I met her yesterday evening at the Democrats Abroad event in her honor. There were more people present and she was there to speak about what she and the Americans Abroad Caucus have accomplished and what's to come, but she also spent considerable time listening. In addition to our issues as Americans Abroad, she alerted us to the number of measures that are being passed (although struck down afterwards) against women. Not only the invasive anti-abortion measures and now, anti-contraception. I've been reading about it in the paper, but I must admit I had no idea the extent of the movement. It was a really short trip: arrival in the morning; meeting with the Ambassador Rivkin in the afternoon; the cocktail event followed by a fundraising dinner in the evening; breakfast this morning; train to London for more of the same and return to Washington tomorrow.
Thursday evening was the AARO board meeting followed by a little party for RB, who has left the board after 10 years of being the events manager. 
We had dinner with the P's yesterday evening (after that event). It was a nice, calm meal. They've signed up for a trip to China in the fall, so we compared their itinerary with ours from 6 years ago.

Last Sunday, after casting our votes in the first round of the legislative elections here, we set off for Six-Fours to visit the Lebelles down there for a few days. That's always enjoyable. G cooks up a storm and it's so good, it's hard to resist eating too much. Lots and lots of conversation, of course. P has been delving into family history and shared his genealogy files with us. We also spent an afternoon with Ch and Y. We returned on Wednesday. 
All the time we were gone and until yesterday, I was working in the background on the certificate for Representative Maloney. I was supposed to do it, but I ran into a little problem because I no longer have very sophisticated image software, so a colleague from the board ended up having to actually do it. It looks great and now we have a good template and an image of our logo at 20% transparency to use as background in future documents.
Paul and I went to the Matisse exhibit at Beaubourg at the beginning of the month. That was fantastic -- all the work he did drawing over and over the same subject. Those fluid lines are not so simple; they come after having drawn the subject so much the hands seem to know what to do automatically. Paintings are the same. He painted, took a picture, scraped the painting and started over for a year, a year and a half!
The first weekend in June was the exhibit of our paintings at La Charpente, followed by a visit from Sacha and his parents. He's getting that Bouddha look about him! I visited him and Gwen yesterday before going to that cocktail event. He's really growing so, so fast. He's smiling at people, now!

The Stein exhibit at the Grand Palais

We've been doing a lot recently, and instead of loading up one post, I'm going to break it down into several episodes. I've just been too lazy to write more often.

Back in the days of the Pierwige, back before I stayed there, Paul was already living there and there were plenty of foreign students and young working people. Among them were Peter and Jeanne from Switzerland. They were not a couple, then, but they did become a couple and are still so. They came to Paris a few weeks ago and we all went out to eat on Tuesday evening and then to the Stein exhibit on Thursday morning.

The Stein Collection -- a great exhibit. I don't think I've ever seen so many Picasso and Matisse paintings together. Apparently Leo and Gertrude collected mostly Picasso and their brother and his wife took to Matisse. No matter. They collected early, before these artists became famous and overpriced. When they could no longer collect Picasso and Matisse or Cézanne, they started collecting newer artists. It's all interesting. Leo, the elder brother, left Gertrude when Alice B. Toklas came to live with her. And that's the Gertrude Stein I was more familiar with, the writer who befriended Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. We got to the Grand Palais a few minutes before opening and with our Carte Sésame we were in the direct access, no waiting line. It's so refreshing to see exhibits before the crowds come in and you can't see anything. (Last year, at the Monet exhibit, I saw the difference. I saw it once with Rita at 9:00 a.m. and then went again with the Pickars and Paul one afternoon. They allow too many people at once in the Grand Palais and it's tiring to try to see anything. You can get close. You can't stand back. Just keep moving.)

Before going to the exhibit, we all met for dinner on Tuesday evening. Of course, over the years I had heard stories of the Pierwige before me and of Paul's friends there, so I felt as though I already knew them. Paul had found the restaurant on Lafourchette.com. He reserved us at Au Gourmand, where you get a 40% discount when you reserve via the site. Very, very nice. It was an excellent meal and, with the discount, not expensive, at all.