It's startin to break back into spring, I think. Gettin up towards 50 tomorrow, and what perfect timing for the frisbee my mom sent to get here?!

This week just flew by. Boooo. I actually had to say so long to a couple classes. I'm so not ready for this.

Lauren's comin on Wednesday!! HAR! If the weather cooperates and we find two bikes that are worth riding, we might try and make it to Chambord. If not, there's always the bus. Mostly just wanna hang out and live life. Get coffees. Walk around town. Catch up on 6 months of missed sister time. Introduce her to everyone here!

P.S....

Pictures are updated!

Music and poetry

Friday, I finally got to see the infamous "Orangerie"...a blues bar that I must say lived up to all the talk. You walk in and it feels like home right away...the owner is friendly, the regulars are friendly, and the beer is excellent (as well as the music, of course). The owner has you sign a sort of guestbook...fun to read through and see all the different languages and locations of his various customers.

I went with Rose to her lycée's open house on Saturday, and wow. I'm impressed. It's a trade school really...hostellry and tourism, so these kids learn everything from cooking to choosing wines to serving tables to managing a hotel. Their facility is great, they have hotel rooms and restaurant tables like other schools have science labs.

Also went to a poetry thing at the library...two poets did readings of their poems, and then their editor talked about the editing process, from selection of poems to the process of putting it into a book, to marketing. She gave tips to would-be poets on how to choose a publishing house for submissions...recommended starting with small houses since they would be more likely to publish newbies, and to of course research the kind of poems each house tends to publish. Don't wanna be submitting traditional verse to a house that prides itself on experimental poetry, after all.

Wandered into the School of Music in Blois, searching for a piano. There was some sort of event going on, parents and kids everywhere, so I blended in at least. Still, was a bit intimidated by all the ruckus, so made my way out before I found one. Plan is to go back on a weekday and talk to someone, see if I can legitimately use a practice room.

Another hundred pages in Les Trois Mousquetaires.

Les vacances

Two days in Paris: we hit some major sites--Notre Dame, musée d'Orsay, the Eiffel Tower. We ate well--a Chinese restaurant literally next door to our hotel, and a tasty Moroccan bistro around the corner.

Dad headed home for business, and Mom and I took the Eurostar to London, then got a train up to Scarborough. Was good to be back, we wandered around town a lot, ate in A tearoom (not THE tearoom, because omg it was closed for the weekend--I could have cried). We hiked up the Cleveland Way (check out the undercut cliffs there...no messin around on this path). We caught up with Johan and James, too...got coffee, reminisced about the good ole days of Scarborough mayhem.

We headed back to Paris, crashed in the Comfort Hotel (not exactly deserving of its name), and then I saw Mom off in the morning. Then high-tailed it into town to meet up with Alan for a day of extraordinary museuming. We hit the Picasso museum, Victor Hugo's house, Balzac's house, and (the star of the day) the Marmottan museum, which pretty much left me speechless with its collection of Monets. Just. Stunning.

We night-trained to Carcassonne, arriving at about 6am. There ARE places opening up at this hour, fortunately, so we splurged on a brasserie breakfast of OJ, tea, croissants, and bread. Then hiked to our nice but distant hotel, CRASHED, and then got back up to visit la cité. Carcassonne has two parts: the new part (nice, but standard as far as little French towns go), and the old part, which is a medieval walled city. Over our three days there, we walked the walls, took a tour of the chateau, and also roamed through the new part of town. Walked along the Canal du Midi a bit. Ate cassoulet--regional speciality consisting of beans, sausage, and chicken all baked together. Saw a movie--La Môme--about the life of Edith Piaf. We took the midnight train out of Carcassonne (in fiiiirst class couchettes, awesome!) and made it to Orléans around 6:30am. Waited two hours for the train to Blois, then made a killer breakfast of eggs and croissants and muesli before meandering home to settle back down to daily life. I'm still doing laundry and it's 5pm. And if the washing machine hadn't been taking all the hot water, I'd definitely have showered by now. Off to sort that out...