Paris Day 1

Allright, back to the program! So here we are strolling thru the streets of the 5th. Stopping to kiss occasionally cause that's what everyone does! Boulevard St Michel is busy with locals and tourists - lots of people with rolling suitcases, couples - young, old and in-between, working singles moving at a good pace, families. We make sure to keep up with the flow or pull ourselves over to the side when we want to look at something or check our map (discreetly, bien sur) keeping in mind that is is a big, busy city and to stroll mindlessly in front of working people with places to go is not going to make you any friends. I think one of the issues that tourists have with Parisians is that sometimes the tourist doesn't keep this in mind and the French will cluck at you for behaving so rudely and being such a rube. I was so glad that I brought my trench coat - it's a uniform here! Mine has gold lame sleeves (see my profile pic) but most often I saw the typical khaki colored trench and often without the belt being worn, the coat just worn open. I had a reservation for 2 pm at the O'Kari Hammam, a treat I had arranged via email to decompress and kick off the trip. Owned by a lovely woman named Karima - who communicated with me only in french and kindly corrected my email mistakes - the hammam (french for steam bath) is located at 22 Rue Dussoubs in the 2nd Arr. Jake and I took the bus and had a bit of trouble finding the street and then finding number 22. I inquired of an elderly concierge and he so kindly took his big ring of keys, locked his big wooden doors and walked, in the fine rain that was falling, up and down with us till we spotted number 22. We buzzed the entry and were admitted to the private courtyard. O'Kari is located in the lower level - Karima warmly welcomed me, gave me a robe and a paper thong (!!) and showed me the steam room - gorgeous, tiled and very hot - and the serene blue pool outside the steam room to cool off between taking time in the steam. After I was properly steamed up I had a scrubbing - all over - whilst laying on a marble slab like some sacrificial lamb - and had to will my ever relaxing self not to slide off! The attendant showers you off (the floor has drains) and sends you to the massage room. There I did fall asleep - but I never fell off the table! Afterwards Karima gives you some mint tea and the choice of a pastry. She insists on 3 hours of your time saying that is necessary for one to feel the full effects and to fully relax. I had a nice conversation (conducted in broken English and broken French) in the steam room and again in the tea room with a french woman who actually called her daughter so that the daughter could talk with me and impress me with her good English :) Back in the fine rain I walked back to the hotel, again with a little help from some kind strangers. Seriously - if you ask, in your best French, they will stop and pull out a map from their pocket (happened more than once) and practically walk you there. Jake had done some exploring and cafe sitting while I was gone and now we went around the corner to a small resto for some dinner. My appetite was very dull and I had the onion soup which was just ok; Jake felt the same way about the mussels he ordered but we didn't care we were in Paris! Back to Hotel De Suez - very comfortable, clean and with the best reception staff - so friendly and helpful. Also terrific bathrooms - the shower was divine and the commodes have 2 buttons - 1 for #1 and 2 for #2 - very eco and not what you hear normally hear about European bathroom facilities. As a matter of fact all our hotels/apartments while there had excellent bathroom facilities. If you have any questions or want more details on anything just ask. xo, La

A break from my planned programming.....

Hello All. What follows is a copy and pasted Facebook post I made last night. I will return to blogging about my trip tomorrow, but this really got to me. Here is the post: I hope I can write this coherently. Tonight I was gigging with my group The PopTarts. As we were getting ready to start a man gave me the finger - I mean not flicking me the bird - but forcefully pushing his hand toward me with his middle finger up. I turned around thinking I must be mistaken. When I turned back he was still at it. It took me about 3 seconds to realize he was upset that we were wearing our rainbow boots and hats (an outfit we wear often and which had been chosen for this gig about a week ago and not to celebrate anything!). He started raving about having his granddaughters with him and he wasn't going to take this gay pride shit. He left with his, I presume wife, and granddaughters leaving me in a state of shock. Who thinks waving your middle finger at a group of women who sing 60s girl group songs is going to impress your grandchildren?? To the credit of the rest of his table and the other people at the club - who all stayed and had a great time - everyone said he was an ass and had been kicked out of 2 clubs already for his awful behavior. Still I was shaken. I have been in bands all my life. I have been in situations where I thought I might be raped or worse. Been pushed around by a would be boyfriend. But this was so shocking to me - more than anything that's ever happened to me. I was, by accident of birth, born a straight, white woman and have never been personally subjected to this kind of hate. It breaks my heart to think of all the people who deal with this hateful anger every day. All I can say is I will not stand for this in my life. It is time, people, for all of us who want to live and let live to set these hate mongers straight. We need to find a way to live in peace with everyone. The world depends on us to be strong and show respect to each and every person we meet. Thanks for listening and for showing up in your life and making a difference.

April in Paris

Jake and I had the great pleasure of spending the first week of April 2015 in Paris. We flew from Toronto to Charles De Gaulle airport, arriving at 8:30 am. We took the RER blue line to our hotel in the 5th arrondissement, the Latin Quarter. We stayed at the Grand Hotel de Suez which is where we stayed in 1989 on our honeymoon! What a joy it was to be back! I am going to make our trip the basis for the next blog entries, there is so much to tell - and after Paris we went to Rome, where we met up with our daughter, and we traveled on to Barcelona with her. We ended our journey in Belgium where Clementine's been studying for her junior year in college on the Loyola international program. Needless to say - what a wonderful vacation we had! I'll start at the beginning and hope you will enjoy a detailed account of our trip and what lessons I learned during our latest 3 weeks in Europe. I'll break it up in posts. We drove from home to Toronto which is a 4 1/2 hour drive. Flying Air Canada from Toronto was less expensive than flying from New York and NY is a much farther drive; additionally I wanted to fly Air Canada for comparison's sake. The flight leaves nightly at 7:30 pm and arrives early morning in Paris which is perfect. I enjoy driving with my husband, we tend to get a lot of interesting talk in. We left the day before our flight and arrived at Andrea's house in the Lesleyville area of Toronto. Andrea is an old friend who now enjoys dual citizenship and owns a record promotion business, she's an interesting entrepreneur and a lively lady. That evening we had dinner at a new, hot Mexican resto with A and her man. Toronto is a MUST - very international, very cool city. The following morning Jake and I explored the neighborhood - lovely cheese shops and boutiques and cafes etc. before leaving for the airport. For travel I dress comfy but chic: this time I chose to wear newer leggings - heavier material but still stretchy - and layered a tank with a few different tops over it, the final layer a dark denim shirt and my trench coat. Also my topper - a large scarf to be used as blanket, pillow, accessory, whatever it needed to be! I wore my new, but broken in (and ready for lots of walking!), waterproof suede ankle boots. We checked our bags even tho we had both packed only one carry on each! I do not like to lug stuff around, pas chic. Sometime I'll do a packing blog entry, we traveled for 3 weeks with 1 carry on sized bag each! Of course in my purse and the small bag I carried with me I had: earplugs, eye mask, ipad and some almonds, also toothbrush, wipes and water. It's been said a thousand times but be chic yet comfy - travel is exhausting and dirty; you may get cold then hot, need to sleep/relax in a fairly unforgiving seat etc and if you can peel off a few layers and then add them back as needed....you can at least be in charge of something!! The custom lines were ridiculously long but eventually we were on the aircraft - very last row!! I liked Air Canada, the meal was decent actually - a shepard's pie and then, with earplugs and mask on I actually got some rest. Arrival in Paris! We knew to take the blue line RER, but had to ask for help in getting the tickets from the machines. Everyone was very nice and helpful and I always attempted to communicate in french, which I believe pleases them. Tickets and luggage in hand (rolling actually) we took the metro to the stop at St Michel,just a couple of blocks from our hotel. Emerging from the underground into the beautiful light of Paris! The Seine and Notre Dame in view! So happy! Boulevard St Michel is bustling with tourists, locals and the stores and cafes that line it and we roll our bags to the hotel. They are glad to hold our bags until our room is ready so we use the restroom and freshen up and head out to shake off the travel and stretch our legs. To be continued..... xo La

A certain age

There is no denying it. No going back. No regrets? Well, the only thing we can really count on in life is that it will change and change it does. Because I've been gone from here 5 years I can't remember if I've ever written about black cohosh. If you are going thru THE change you may want to consider trying this herb for relief from some of the symptoms. Personally my biggest challenge was/is (hey they came back!!) the lovely sounding "night sweats". Recently they returned and my sleep became severely interrupted several times a night. Not chic. Then I remembered about the black cohosh. Recommended to take 2 capsules a day - I had relief the very first night after taking them! Black cohosh has worked for me and it might be helpful for you. Let us know if you try it and what your results are! xo La

La Rentree

I know it's not Autumn but I have just made a decision to immerse myself in what I love and it feels like new beginnings. What do I love? Well I have neglected this blog for about 5 years and reading thru the posts vividly reminds me of what. Writing, gardening, cooking, eating, reading,travel, Paris, music and more - it's what the good life means to me! So I'm back and making a promise to myself to keep writing and keep exploring what makes me happy in this life. Where have I been? Well my work life took off, my kids graduated high school and I've been living the frantic life of a crazy woman! Make money, keep moving, do what you think you need to do, not particularly what you love to do (don't get me wrong I love doing for my family, but all the rest of it? nuts!) Even so 5 years goes by like nothing. So this makes me realize even more that the time is now! What am I waiting for? Nothing this time. xo, La