Friday, March 31, 2006

My entry is up!

My brilliant friend and author, Diana Peterfreund, has just posted my entry in The Great Blog Voice Experiment.

As you might recall, I mentioned earlier in the week that Diana had the idea of getting twelve authors--none of whom knew who else was participating--to write a scene based on a single, simple idea:
A young woman confronts her parents after learning she has inherited telekinetic powers.
So we each wrote a short scene, and Diana's been posting them in pairs all week. It's very interesting to see how the scenes "paired" up--so many of the same elements, yet all very different.

Mine is coupled with Nalini Singh's, and ours are probably the most different than the others--at least on a superficial basis.

Head on over and take a look. There's a great discussion going on, too, about voice and style.

And later...back to the recap of the Great Paris Research Trip.

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Road trip to Taize

















Up bright and early on Tuesday morning, we took the Metro to Avis (pronounced "Ah-vis" by our French friends) and picked up our car. I didn't take a picture of it, but it was a nice Renault Laguna, large enough for my Music Man's long legs.

With not one wrong turn, and very little shouting, we made our way out of Paris by 7:15, missing rush hour, and getting on the A6 highway to head toward Lyon.

It was, of course, misting and raining, and as we were driving along the highway, Music Man started fumbling around for the windshield wipers. He found the switch, but it only seemed to control the rear window wipers.

And then all of a sudden, the front wipers came on. They were automatic, and sensed the amount of precipitation and adjusted themselves accordingly. We thought that was cool.

So for the first ninety minutes of our road trip, we thought we were in Ohio. The terrain looked just like the flat farmlands of Ohio.

Then it started getting interesting, as we entered the Bourgnogne Region, with sweeping hills and valleys, and acres upon acres of farmland. All of the buildings were old stone, in clusters, surrounded by just as old stone fences.

The medieval historian in me perked right up when we saw a fabulous castle on a hill. (Music Man wouldn't stop; we were on his mission for the day.)

At last we left the highway (where we'd been traveling about 145 km/h) and got to drive on the narrow, winding roads through the villages of creamy stone buildings and forlorn-looking vineyards.

We drove through the village of Buxy (does anyone know how to pronounce this word?), which was adorable with its narrow, curving streets and shops; and then through Sercy, which boasted another wonderful castle (although not of the medieval sort; this one looked more like an overblown chateau).

(I posted that picture up higher.)

At around 11:00, almost exactly four hours after we left Paris, we arrived in the small community of Taize.

As I mentioned, this was the leg of the research trip that Music Man was directing; it was his day. We were visiting Taize because they are known for a particular meditative style of Christian prayer, and he had various reasons for wanting to experience it himself.

The town was lovely, and it was sunny and relatively warm while we were here--about 60 degrees. We spent about four hours in Taize, then drove back to Buxy (still wondering how to pronounce it!) and tried to get something to eat.

Of course, it was about 3:30 at that time, and no one was serving food. However, in the little pub, I managed to use my very limited, but apparently adequate, French to order what became one of my favorite French mainstays while we were there: a Croque Monsieur, which is basically a fancy name for grilled ham and cheese. However, the French add a generous helping of cheese on top of the sandwich and get it all melted and bubbly and brown.

For the two of us, who were starving, it was heaven. I also tried my first kir at that pub--a glass of white wine with a shot of blackberry syrup. Yum.

We arrived back in Paris, and made our way back to "Ah-vis" with only one wrong turn, by 8:00.

By then, we were ready to eat again, so we walked half a block to the St. Germain, which was a great little cafe that became our favorite place to eat while we were there.

It was convenient, the people were very friendly, the food was good, the wine was better, and Music Man was very pleased with the selection of pressiones (beer on tap)...and the music selection included James Blunt. What more could we ask for?

We had a platter of cheese and bread, and our drinks. Lovely way to end a long day.

But tomorrow...we were to be up and at'em for my favorite leg of the journey: the visit to the Opera Garnier!

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Tour Eiffel

I finally got my photos uploaded and cropped and ready to go, so herewith shall we begin The Great Paris Research Trip highlights.
First, let me say that Paris is as beautiful as they say. But the weather while we were there was cold and rainy and dreary. Probably in the upper 30-degrees Fahrenheit to the mid-40s. Brrr!

But it was still Paris!

And the first thing we did was to meet up with one of our old au pairs, who is from Germany, and who flew in for the day just to visit with us! We did the first thing every tourist should do when in Paris: visit the Eiffel Tower!
I can't figure out why this picture is so grainy, but at least you can see that I really was there. This was the day we arrived. We flew all night and barely slept, arriving in Paris at 11:20 am.
We met our friend at 2:00, and went directly to the Tour Eiffel. Amazingly enough, there was absolutely no line to get tickets or to get into the lift to take us up one...two...three levels.

Here I am with my Music Man at the middle level of the tower, with Paris sprawling below.

It stayed this cloudy and misty pretty much the whole time we were there, except part of one day. But even in this pic, you can see the cream-colored buildings of the city and the Montparnasse Tower jutting up in the distance. (Janet, I know what you're thinking...and stop!)

Our friend is a Hard Rock Cafe afficionado; if there's a Hard Rock in the city, he must visit! So, we ate our very first meal in Paris, dinner that night, at the Hard Rock Cafe! We had nachos and beer and salad and a California wine! Oy! (I can't believe I'm admitting this for All the World to See!)

But it was great fun to meet up with him and his father, and absolutely wonderful of them to make the trip from Germany! They are fantastic people, and it didn't hurt that his father had been to Paris many times, and was there to walk us through our first Metro ride.

Later, after dinner, we went back to the Tour Eiffel at night. You can see me here, bundled in coat and gloves and hat, holding a warm, crepe avec sucre--only to keep my fingers warm, of course.
You can see the bare outline of the beautiful tower in the background behind me.
After that, we went back to the hotel and to bed. We had to get up at 6:00 the next morning for the next day of our adventure, which would be spent, not exploring Paris, but driving 4 hours southeast of the city to a small community called Taize.

Monday, March 27, 2006

Movie Kisses

So I took one of these quizzes to find out what famous movie kiss I am...and I'm not too terribly surprised...

Your Famous Movie Kiss is from
Gone With The Wind

"Great balls of fire. Don't bother me anymore, and don't call me sugar."


So how'd the rest of you do?

The Great Blog Voice Experiment

(More on the Paris trip later...still trying to figure out what time zone I'm in.)

In the mean time, I wanted to direct your attention to my brilliant friend Diana Peterfreund's blog, where she has undertaken a great experiment regarding author voice and creativity.

Diana asked me to participate in this experiment, which she explains so well that I'm not going to take the time to do so (it's that Paris time-zone thing), and although my entry isn't going to be posted until Friday, you can see the others as she puts them up--one or two entries per day.

So head on over and see what you think.

And check back here for Paris pics...soon.

Sunday, March 19, 2006

Au revoir!

I'm off! Watch for news and posts here while we're in lovely Paree! Back on Friday.

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Well, shoot.

I'm heading off to Paris on Sunday, and just got the most devastating news.

Brad Pitt's getting hitched this weekend. Saturday, supposedly, and in Italy of all places.

And here I was, expecting to run into him somewhere down by the Eiffel Tower or Champs Elysees (since he and Angelina and the kids have been hanging out there for the last few weeks).

Guess I'll just have to hang with my husband instead.

Not that I'm complaining, but still.

Brad Pitt.

Who links to me?