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The first time Katia ate snails was on her 3rd birthday when Patrick and I took her to a French restaurant.  She looked at the plate and asked us, “What are they?”
I made a fist and stuck up my first two fingers bent like the tentacles of a snail and slowly moved my hand.  “They’re […]

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Things change yet remain the same.  When I first arrived in Paris in 1971, I was amazed by the way the French would speak about the war (WWII) as though it had happened yesterday!  It would come up in daily conversations over and over; a remark here, or a reminder there, but for me it […]

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With both McCain and Obama talking about the price of gas, oil, off shore drilling, energy conservation, etc., Americans realize that the party may soon be over and life as we once knew it can no longer be maintained!
If you’re like me, however, and have spent half your life living in Europe, you get use to […]

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Katia called her parents and said, “Mom!  Dad!  I almost died!”
“Uh, let me explain!” I cried, running to get the other phone so I could do some explaining! 
If anyone had read my post Signs, Signs, Everywhere A Sign, then you would know that if I was telling this story to Michelle she would have said, “There are signs […]

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This year’s Tour de France is no different than most of the previous races where controversy reigns over the most famous cycle race in the world.  Once again riders have been sent home for testing positive for doping.  When are these athletes going to learn that taking illegal enhancing drugs will no longer be tolerated?  […]

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Bon 14 juillet à toutes et à tous, surtout nos amis et la famille de Patrick aujourd’hui!
Photo Credit: Flickr

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Part Three
A week after the “dog incident” we were on the Champs-Elysées after we had climbed to the top of the Arc de Triomphe.  Our plan was to eat pastries and have tea at Ladurée. I mean, where else would we have gone for a lemon tart (which is my favorite), but to Ladurée! They […]

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Part Two: 
A few days later, Katia, Patrick and I had just left the apartment a few minutes earlier, Patrick was a few feet ahead of us looking in a shop window, when two big dogs bursted out of an apartment building unleashed. The German Shepherd came straight toward us barking at Katia. The dog was […]

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Part One: 
I had a friend, Michelle, who saw signs everywhere to the point where we all began to think she was a little crazy. If she saw a dead bird she would say, “Uh oh! I’m going to get news about someone who died.” Or if she saw people coming toward her with a suitcase […]

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No cell phones, no e-mails, no computers; just back to a simpler time when people couldn’t contact you at any given moment.  It was wonderful!  Yes, we did listen to the answering machine when we got home every evening, but that was all.  Katarina, Patrick and I spent our time like tourists in a city […]

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