Maya: Illusion. Obscuring the spiritual reality of absolute being with an illusory appearance of the sense-world.
Blog: A place to talk about life rather than to live life.
Blogger: A person who talks about life rather than lives it.
(So why am I blogging instead of living life, you ask?....I did a lot of living, now I want to talk about it, so get off my case!)
"Life is full of misery, loneliness and suffering - and it's all over much too soon."
There are times when even after 40 years of living in Paris off and on (mostly on) I still love the beauty of Paris and what it has to offer as though I were seeing the city for the very first time. Last night was one of those evenings. It was the 8th annual event of La Nuit Européene Des Musées where many of the museums in France and other European countries were kept open late at night until early morning and best of all they were free. We were among the more than two million people who took part!
The Petit Palais all lit up.
Patrick and I were like two kids in a candy store where your mom says, “Okay you can get one or two things, but no more!” And you’re like, “I know, I know, I want a Reese’s Peanut Buttercup and a Mallo Cup! No, no, I want an Almond Joy and a Snicker’s Bar instead! Wa - wait, I know, I want….” Well, you get the picture! Patrick and I were doing exactly the same thing. “Let’s go to the Rodin Museum and then to the Maison de Victor Hugo. No, I know, let’s do the Musée du Quai Branly and then the Musée d’Art Moderne. No wait, what about the Petit Palais….”
Talking with other Parisians as we waited in line, it was a great atmosphere.
What we ended up doing was going to the Musée d’Orsay which was wonderful. Such a beautiful museum and to think at one time they were planning on destroying this old train station and building a hotel instead!
People looking behind the huge clock.
We spent the entire evening there filling our eyes with paintings by Renoir, Van Gogh, Monet, Degas, Manet, Gauguin and the list goes on and on.
Petite danseuse de quatorze ans - Edgar Degas
Répétition d’un ballet sur la scène - Edgar Degas
Bal au Moulin de la Galette - Auguste Renoir
La nuit étoilée - Vincent Van Gogh
Les Raboteurs de Parquet - Gustave Caillebotte
We discovered a wonderful artist, Gustave Caillebotte. Sorry for those of you who are great fans of his, but what can I say, we were not aware of this amazing artist! His work is so life like and although he is listed among the impressionist painters, I would categorize him as a realist painter.
Doesn’t my photo almost look like an impressionist painting?!!!
Afterwards we decided to walk over to the Grand Palais. It was a little before midnight and as we made our way to the most beautiful bridge in Paris, the Pont Alexandre III, the Eiffel Tower started sparkling as it does on the hour, every hour that it’s lit. The weather was warm for the first time this month and people were strolling along the quai as we made our way to stand in line at the Grand Palais.
Nearing the Pont Alexandre III.
The Eiffel Tower sparkling at midnight.
Cherubs and Art Nouveau lamp on the Pont Alexandre III.
Getting in line at the Grand Palais.
Maya Muses: It was one of those nights that you thank your lucky stars that you live not only in the most beautiful city in the world, but one of the most cultural cities in the world. Here’s to Paris!!!
Cin-cin or Cheers!!!
Photo Credits: Personal Photos and the last photo from Google Images
A few years ago I won a contest online for having the best library out of all the contestants and I didn’t even need a rolling ladder at the time. Now I have the library I’ve always dreamed of having and with our 9 foot ceilings, I can definitely use a rolling ladder, but for some reason, I no longer want one. (The ladder - not the library!) Who would have thought it? I mean I’ve been dreaming of it ever since I was a kid and saw Audrey Hepburn standing on one in the Greenwich Village bookstore in Funny Face!
Now the ladder just seems to distract from the beauty of the books, so I decided to keep the ladder behind closed doors in the computer room and use it only when I really need it. My library, needless to say, is my favorite room in our apartment. I love to sit in the big easy chair and read with the sun coming in through the windows. The only thing missing is a fireplace to add to the perfect ambiance and since it’s still cold in Paris, we’d be lighting a fire right now if we had one!
Maya Muses: Patrick wanted to put in a flat screen tv on one of the shelves, but I told him, “Unh uh, only books in our library! Now all I need is to go shopping for more because I’ve read almost every book that I have and lucky me - I still have room to add another shelf before reaching the ceiling!
A photo of Audrey Hepburn and Katarina in my bathroom - I love them!
I know my mom would have loved it if I was there celebrating Mother’s Day with her today. Mom knew that my older sister, Josie, was going to be there with my younger brother, Bob, but she didn’t know that my two youngest siblings, Rosie and Bam, were also going to surprise her by flying in to be with her today.
I probably would have gone if it wasn’t for the fact that I’ll be flying over for her 90th birthday later this year! Tickets from Paris to Pittsburgh will be over $1650.00 (!) so it really doesn’t give me a chance to hop over twice in one year! Too bad, because I would have loved to have been there today!
Maya Muses: Next best thing is to Skype! Patrick and I will do that after dinner with Jean-Pierre and Manou this evening. My mom is one special lady and I won’t repeat what I wrote about her two years ago; you can see for yourself here.
Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers everywhere! I’m so happy I can wish my mom a happy day today and everyday!
We’ve all had days when we’ve said that it was probably better if we had just stayed in bed. This was definitely one of those days for this Parisian guy who may have gotten tired of all the traffic jams in Paris and decided to finish his commute by taking his car down to the Métro!
Or perhaps he had a late night and took a short nap on his way to work? In any case, the result was his car ended up down in the Métro entrance at Chaussée d’Antin near the big department store Galeries Lafayette, not far from the Printemps and of course the Opéra Garnier!
Luck was definitely on his side! The incident could have been diastrous being that this Metro station is a busy one especially in the daytime! Not one person was on his way out of or into the Métro and the only thing hurt was the guy’s pocketbook when they had to tow his car away!
Maya Muses: His version was he thought it was the entrance to an underground parking lot! Yep, every underground parking I know always has steps leading down so you can maneuver your car before parking! Not to mention a Métro sign so you can remember where you parked your car!
Yes, on April 9th I turned 4 years old! I’m a little more than a toddler!!! Well, to be more precise my blog is. I hate to say that I’ve been a little neglectful this past year, but I just can’t seem to find the time to write as I use to or as much as I would like. Still, I can’t complain and my blog is doing well even though I’m not here all the time.
I’m still a toddler in this photo.
Depending on the different statistics I’m looking at, I have on average between 400 to 1200 people who come to my blog each day. My most popular post was one that I ended up taking down because it was so controversial. There were over 200 comments on that post. It concerned a well known singer and boy did I hear from his fans, but I’m glad I took the post down. Even today, over a year later, I still have people coming looking for that post.
Another popular post was when the Pittsburgh Steelers won the Super Bowl back in 2009! For the longest time my blog was #2. The Steelers official website was of course #1, but I was surprised to see that I was even ahead of Sports Illustrated who was #3. Today, three years later, if you Google “Steelers 6 Super Bowl Rings” my blog is #1 from close to 3 million websites.
My most successful post today is one I wrote three years ago. It’s my favorite quotes about Paris. A large amount of traffic that comes to It’s All Maya everyday, comes looking for this particular page. Again if you Google “Paris Quotes” my blog is #1 out of (wait for this!) 109 million websites dealing with quotes about Paris!!!
A post that still surprises me that people come to read everyday is one I wrote in 2008 about how to get rid of anti-reflective coating from your eye-glasses with Armour Etch. Four years later I’m still #2 out of 79,000 sites talking about this topic.
Tooting my own horn with a little help from others.
Maya Muses: Sorry for tooting my own horn and I’m probably the only one who’s interested in this post, but 4 years later I do want to thank all my readers who come looking to read something that I’ve written and even though most people don’t leave a comment (except for a faithful few!) Thank you! I appreciate it all the same!
On our way to the Musée du quai Branly, not a cloud in the sky!
I know! The lyrics aren’t exactly the way Cole Porter wrote them, but back in March when I first started this post it was sizzling here in Paris. The weather went from cold in February to hot in March and it felt more like summer than springtime! Things are back to normal in April and Patrick and I decided we wanted to take advantage of Paris this year. Last year we were so busy the year went by before we knew it!
Hélène’s theater troupe, La Compagnie du Passage.
Afterall, Paris offers so much….theaters, concerts, restaurants, museums - I mean the list goes on and on and we’ve been trying to do our share! We saw Hélène’s performance at a small theater and Claire’s concert at a supper club where we dined and danced! It was in this tiny underground club in Montmartre listening to the Klez Band that I ran into an old friend, Paul, who I hadn’t seen for over twenty years!!! He lived in the apartment below me in the Cour Saint-Pierre. There were a few others (Eric and Jennifer) there that night as well. Jennifer was just a baby when she first arrived in the Cour Saint-Pierre!
Claire and The Klez Band performing in Montmartre.
We’ve been to a few nice restaurants that I’m hoping to find the time to write about and we went to see the film The Artist. I loved that film and we were rooting for them during the Oscars! (So glad they won!) We saw another good French film, Intouchables, that I recommend as well.
Maya Muses: What I really need is another 12 hours added to each day to do everything that I want to do (like write more posts on my blog) and I’ll be fine!
They say as we get older time passes more quickly. Strange phenomenon, but so true! April in Paris - lovely, but Uncle Sam making us file our taxes (yes, we still have to even though we reside in France) doesn’t help! Have to run!
Patrick and I went for a walk today, the sun was shining and not a cloud in the sky! Beautiful! We walked a nice little 5.5 miles (almost 9 km) and then sat at a sidewalk café and just enjoyed the late afternoon sunshine with a glass of wine. What I love about Paris is that you can walk and walk and not even realize how far you’ve walked because of things to see and do. Thanks to a great website that my cousin Debi told me about, I can now calculate how far we’ve gone.
When Deb and Julie were here we spent one afternoon walking up to Montmartre and ended up walking for over 8.8 miles (over 14 km). Climbing up a steep hill is not the same as walking on a flat surface and this website, Map My Fitness, takes that into account. I love it.
Well, on this first day of April my mom said she had dyed her hair blue. “Yeah, right mom!” I mean what 89 year old mother goes and dyes her hair blue, right? I wanted to see proof otherwise, April Fools!!! Well here’s mom in all her glory!!!
Maya Muses: She’s always wanted to put blue highlights in her hair, so I thought, “Hmm, maybe she did dye her hair.” Well this is how it really turned out! I think it looks pretty good if you ask me! “You go, mom!!!” (89 years young!!!)
Two of my cousins came to Europe in February on a whirlwind tour of Amsterdam, Brussels, Brugge, and Paris. They couldn’t have chosen a better time to come. Uhh, that is if you happen to be Eskimos or you just love freezing Siberian weather! They froze their butts off even wearing 5 layers of clothing while running around Holland and Belgium, so by the time they arrived in Paris, the cold weather seemed downright balmy!
Deb lighting a candle in Notre-Dame.
Julie trying on hats in the Bon Marché.
Everyday after a late breakfast Julie and Deb took off to walk the streets of Paris and walk they did! On average about ten miles a day, which is normal for Paris, but when the weather is hovering around freezing, that’s saying a lot! During the weekend I took them to my old haunting grounds: Saint-Germain-des-Près, the Place Saint-Sulpice, the Jardin du Luxembourg and the Bon Marché one day. Montmartre, Pigalle, and the Cour Saint-Pierre another day.
The Eglise Saint-Sulpice getting a facelift.
Cézanne at the Musée du Luxembourg.
Maya Muses: It was great showing them around Paris and it brought back good memories of bygone days for me, but don’t ask them that! I chewed their ears off going down memory lane and when I finally saw their eyes glazing over after my fiftieth story about my shenanigans in my younger days, I knew it was time to call it a day!
Showing Julie and Debi the Cour Saint-Pierre.
How the Cour Saint-Pierre looked when I first arrived in 1980.
How the Cour Saint-Pierre is today.
(A lot more plants, but a lot less hair! LOL!)
Maya Muses: 2012 is a landmark year in many ways and capturing Joseph Kony can be one way of making this world a better place. No, his capture will not be a panacea for our troubled world, but it will make a difference in the lives of many Ugandan children and that alone is worth believing that his capture is imminent!
Spread the word! And let’s go after Bashar al-Assad while we’re at it!
Maya Muses: A day to celebrate women everywhere! I know I’m going to step on some toes - about 50% of them - when I say what a difference this world would be if women ruled the world rather than men, but it’s true! I’m sure John Lennon would more than likely agree….
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. I loved that film and we were rooting for them during the Oscars! (So glad they won!) We saw another good French film, 
, that I recommend as well.
