LA VIE EN ROSE . . .

This is nominally Tom’s blog, but I think I am more than holding up my end of the bargain.  And before my dear friend Jane arrives tomorrow and we have some whirlwind adventures together (stay tuned!), I thought I would write a quick catch up—if only to make that photo of Tom in the hospital disappear from the opening page of the blog!  I’m sure Tom will write soon about the interesting company he believes he belongs with—previous patients with high name recognition who have been treated at that hospital.  I reminded him that he could have good company over in the Montparnasse cemetery, too, if he doesn’t take better care of himself.

It’s suddenly Spring in Paris, and quite glorious out.  So we have, in fact been walking around in cemeteries, which is how I know about all the good company!  Over at Montparnasse, you can take your rest with Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre, with Samuel Beckett, and scores of other luminaries.  Or up at Cimitière du Père-Lachaise, you can hang out with Oscar Wilde, Frédéric Chopin, Édith Piaf (of “La Vie en Rose” fame), and others.  But if you are just there to visit, they ring the bells and send you on your way at 5:00 each day.  We were there at closing time at both Montparnasse and Père-Lachaise!

When the temperature went into the high 70s on Sunday and we were almost too hot, it was hard to believe that less than two weeks ago we were freezing our way through northern France and Belgium in search of the extraordinary battle sites and monuments related to Canada’s involvement in WWI.  Tom wrote two articles for his hometown newspaper about that trip, and he swears he’s going to write a blogpost too . . .

Avec Le Chef

This past weekend I had a big day on Saturday when I took a one-day French cooking workshop at Le Cordon Bleu!  Tom gave me the course for Christmas, and when April 13^th arrived, I walked over to the school early and prepared for the demonstration.  The morning involved one of their head chefs giving a demo of a three-course meal.  All the attendees got to taste the dishes.  Then in the afternoon, we made the main course (Breast of Magret Duck) from scratch.  The course was called “cooking for friends,” and you’ll know that you are a really good friend if I make those dishes for you.  They are quite complicated and involve a lot of precise measuring and timing.  Of course, you must be a really good friend—or a family member—if you are reading this at all!

Saturday evening we enjoyed some drinks and appetizers with our landlords at their other Paris apartment in the Marais.  It’s a really pretty place—much more modern in décor than this one, and in the former servants’ quarters of an old building.  It was a nice evening, and we were glad to spend some time with them before they left for a holiday in Spain.

Cordon Bleu

On Sunday we met our friends Freda and Edward for crêpes at the same place where I took the earlier picture of Alina and Aruem, near the Pantheon.  The afternoon flew by, which is how we ended up being kicked out of the Montparnasse cemetery before we’d completed our round of visits!  Tom has already been back . . . and will no doubt continue the story in a follow-up to this quick catch-up . . .