Even the Rafales, those loud French fighter planes that zip by at low altitude above our woods toward their Toulouse base, have been missing in action. The plane! The plane! For a minute, I feel like Tattoo in Fantasy Island ( Youtube it if you’re too young to remember that TV show.) For over three weeks, I haven’t seen or heard a commercial airplane above my head no contrail scratching our deep blue skies. Merci! Your support helps me maintain this blog. Hint: it’s also a thoughtful holiday gift for this dear Francophile friend of yours… When you purchase the book, I will mail you a signed bookmark from France and stamp your envelope with this stunning timbre Trésors de Notre-Dame. To feed your dreams of Paris and plan your next trip, please consider buying a copy of my book Moments Parfaits in Paris, where you’ll explore every arrondissement through forty photographs and essays. Nouveaux maux, nouveaux mots: new ailments, new words Les vacances sont sacrées: vacations are sacred Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose: the more it changes, the more it stays the same with the means at hand with what we have on hand Le spectacle vivant: live show (performing arts)Īvec les moyens du bord: lit. La chambre de bonne: maid’s quarters (usually a tiny bedroom under Parisian rooftops) With no lines at the ticket machines and very few commuters pacing the RER and métro corridors, it felt more like a quiet Sunday morning in Paris before the young set heads out pour bruncher and the 40-years-old carry bouquets on their way to have lunch at their parents’. I expected platforms and trains to be packed but I was wrong. We arrived at Gare d’Austerlitz on a Tuesday at 5:30 pm which qualified as “peak hour” since the curfew started half-an-hour later. The fact that I had been away from Paris for (what seemed to be) an eternity was putting me in a unique position: it would be easier to notice how the city had changed since its pre-pandemic days. It was Rick’s birthday after all and it would be a nice change of scenery. We decided to go anyway and make the most of it. I knew that museums would be closed cafés and restaurants would not welcome patrons a 6 pm curfew would still be in place. Despite living in France, I hadn’t set foot in Paris since September 2019.
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