Author: raowordplay

Parting Shots … I will miss EVERYTHING —especially my friends, the streets, Willi’s — my restaurant and watering hole of choice these days, cozy cinemas, my neighborhood haunts, inexhaustible surprises (e.g. the Shoe exhibit at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs) and the energy everywhere. Bien sûr, having gym, library, grocery and department store cards feeds my fantasy that coming back is just the turn of a calendar page away.

Holidays Across the Pond … Thanksgiving is not a holiday in Paris — which is surprising because they regularly close down to honor saints no one, including Parisians, has ever heard of. On Thanksgiving Day I went with friends to a candlelit classical concert at the Institut Océanographique de Paris where we listened to a string quartet play pieces in the ambiance prevalent when most of the works premiered a few centuries ago. Then my friend Jocelyne, who owns my favorite jewelry store in Paris, threw a little holiday party in her store. She designs and creates the small treasures she sells, and we help each other with our French and English. I met her family and girlfriends and learned a little about the mystique of French women. Many American expats celebrate Thanksgiving on the weekend, and my girlfriend Joan puts on the ultimate traditional spread for an international group of friends and loved one. I walked past many Metro stops on my way home to ameliorate my food coma and enjoy the extra holiday illumination enhancing the City of Light.