Au Revoir Paris (for now), Bon Jour California !!
Well well well, after an unprecedented 6 weeks of fun, I finally realized it might be time to go home for awhile !! (but not for too long!!)
On my last days in town, I enjoyed some very exciting Christmas shopping at Galeries Lafayette & Au Printemps, where EVERYONE in Paris was tightly crowded outside & inside the stores, milling around the streets, coming & going with all their shopping bags. There were police directing both foot traffic & cars, scooters darting about, holiday puppet shows on the sidewalks, Christmas music & lights, crushes of people swarming back & forth across the street… ooh la laaa, quite an experience!! It even snowed for a few hours… big fluffy snowflakes, the likes of which I haven’t seen in years!
My last day there, Soenke flew to Paris from Frankfurt? Dresden? Hamburg? to take me to dinner, then assist me & my gigantic piles of luggage to successfully reach the airport the next day. It was all a lot of fun, with incessant teasing about how much stuff I had !! [By the way, I like having my own pilot… he is a man who knows how to get to where I am. Excellent!]
Coming back home was a lovely experience, since my parents were there to meet me at the airport, & my Mom had decorated my apartment for me with a little Christmas tree & various holiday accoutrements. We celebrated on Christmas Eve…it was the usual Crawford madhouse with my brother & his wife & their 3 darling boys. Sami, a Tunisian masters’ degree student (and Fulbright scholar) also joined us for the day. The weather was STUPENDOUS!… around 18C, which meant croquet in the backyard, & a big smile on my previously-frozen face !
On Christmas day, I met my folks down at our favorite beachside cafe for lunch, & enjoyed a few hours of warm California sunshine !
What is next for Jennifer????? Well, 3 days of furious year-end tax planning… then on Wednesday the 29th, Soenke lands at LAX for a week here in California! On the 5th or so, we head off to Hamburg (BE READY, SALLY!!!), then back to Paris for more fun & “business meetings” with our friends there!!
Christmas lights of Galeries Lafayette:
Soenke flying back to Paris (I couldn’t resist….)
Me & my luggage, at Charles de Gaulle!
Christmas Eve on the back porch:
Prime rib for dinner:
Sami with 2 of my nephews:
Gina (ma belle soeur) & Chase in his new beret!:
Mom’s version of the sparkling Tour Eiffel !!!
Christmas Day, lunch in Laguna Beach!
December 26th, 2004 at 2:57 pm
I’m ready! Any ideas of what you would like to do or see here? What has Sönke suggested? Can’t wait to see you again.
December 26th, 2004 at 6:35 pm
Hey girl! I have no idea what is in Hamburg (now that I know that it is not the birthplace of the Hamburger, I am a little deflated..)… but Soenke has suggested some fun things, which I cannot now remember (they were big German words).
You must tell me what you want me to bring… perhaps some proper superpower toothpaste ??! I am now hooked on this Elmex German toothpaste, if you can believe!
December 26th, 2004 at 6:38 pm
P.S. I wrote too soon, Sally! Just went to your blog & saw the excellent detailed list of superpower stuff you are missing
…. am making notes!
December 26th, 2004 at 11:31 pm
Merry Christmas (late!), we had that big storm here in lovely Ohio, so my internet was down for about three days. I had power, though, so I consider myself lucky!!!
Side note : Might I get a copy of Sami’s Fulbright application? I’m applying myself next year, and I try to absorb all the successful applications I can - not to COPY, just to get a better idea of what they’re looking for.
And that Soenke…woo-ee! Not everyone has a lovely bit like that FLYING to meet them. You tricky girl, you!
January 5th, 2005 at 5:08 am
Umm.. it’s just as well Soenke was there to help you with your bags..!! Exactly HOW much shopping did you do??!!!
January 10th, 2005 at 7:36 pm
JOY!
That’s EXACTLY how I remember the sparkling Eiffel Tower! Martha Stewart, eat your heart out!
Lin
July 17th, 2008 at 6:10 pm
Duprost….
Duprost….