Bastille Day!

SORRY for the long gap between posts, we have had a very busy couple of months!! Josie has been doing great in nursery, better every week... and I've been in school too, taking a class at the American University in Paris on the History of Paris! It's so interesting, and if you visit I should be able to do a better job showing you around.

We've taken lots of cool class trips - to the Cathedral at St.-Denis, where all the kings and queens of France are buried, to the Palais Royal, which the Duc d'Orleans built in the 18th century to entertain the public, and a sobering visit to Drancy, the Paris suburb from which all the deported Jews and political prisoners were taken to Auschwitz.

Anyway, the class is over this week and I'm sad... I even had to write a term paper (I got an A) which was extremely stressful as I had no memory of how to write one! I had all those stress dreams and everything! But we have a busy August ahead of us so it's just as well...

June was also busy both with visitors and travel - Rosemary and Doug, our dear friends in Nyack, were with us for a week which was terrific. We saw lots of fun sights with them, including the Rodin museum, a boat trip down the Seine, and a walk through the Marais ending with falafels in the Place des Voges (built as a royal residence/compound by Henri III to keep all the nobles and bankers close!)

We took a nice trip to Giverny with Melissa and Nathalie to see Monet's house (and gardens of course!) Lots of great photos in the gallery. It was our last getaway with those girls as Melissa and David are moving to Miami in a couple of weeks... we're very sad and will miss them so much. We also made it back to the U.S. for about 10 days... first for my 20-year (gasp) page reunion in Washington, D.C. which was great. We got to go down on the floor of the House (though a very noisy Josie was banished to the Speaker's lobby, as you'll see from the photos) to see where we used to work... we also saw the Page school where we went, and House pages still go, and the new House page dorm. We also got to spend some quality time with Wally and Jean and their children Caleb and Tess... and caught up with a few friends in the City.

Otherwise we've managed to stay busy and enjoy our first summer in Paris... Josie and I started a morning musical playgroup once a week, and we've spent every Wednesday playing with our friends Catherine and Millie in the lovely Rodin gardens. This past weekend has been a long one, for Bastille Day... we packed it with activities, including a trip to the Sculpture garden and Berthillon ice cream on Ile St. Louis, a jaunt to the very cool Parc Andre Citroen, reclaimed from the old Citroen factory on the Seine, to hear a concert, the new Woody Allen movie followed by Italian dinner, shopping at les Soldes and a boat trip down the Seine. Today we're going to people watch in the morning (les enfants de la Patrie) and head to the Parc Montsouris with Melissa and Nathalie for a picnic in the afternoon. Aux armes, citoyens!!!