Tall Tales from Kansas

It’s been almost a month since Sister and I got back from France. Time is such a slippery thing isn’t it? Moving fast, moving slow, all of it swirling around with hardly any boundaries to keep it in anywhere close to orderly. Sometimes a month feels like a day. Sometimes years can seem like only a short time ago – especially when we think about momentous events. I find myself thinking all the time “how can it be that many years ago that X happened”.

One of the things that sister and I told each other on this trip, while we were taking in all that we were seeing, was there was no need to know too much about anything, because we were going to forget it all anyway. I don’t want to work too hard on a vacation. That said, when we were back at the apartment in the evenings, it was fun to look up things we had seen and had questions about. No need for a tour guide to explain things while we are looking. I dislike being at the mercy of what someone else deems important.

Just a few last photos from the trip. The wonderful flowers at Parc Monceau, approaching Sacred Coeur from the back side, the Eiffel Tower in the rain in the early morning.

We did not do a lot of museums or go to places we “should see”. The chateau and forest in Fontainebleau were as close as we came to that… maybe. The opulence at the chateau was over the top and all the craftsmanship that went into the carvings and art and tapestries were very interesting to see. We decided we could go back there again.

We explored a few of the covered passages, very early in the morning, and looked in all the windows and found many things we could have bought. Exploring the streets of the arrondissements and villages was delightful. What is it about doors and windows?

I have shown a view from our “balcony” in Les Batignolles before, but a second view is warranted. We looked out A LOT. The light, the rooftops, the sounds of the neighborhood, were all enchanting.

Have I mentioned that I lit candles in several neighborhood churches. All for the state of the world. It can’t hurt. Angie was a candle lighter.

On the day we packed up and left our airbnb we got yet another selfie. Our motto is you can’t take too many, and you have to take a lot of pictures to get a few decent ones.

A nice couple from Texas took this photo for us at the Cour-d’Honneur du Palais-Royal. The clouds reflected in the balls – bonus!

I think that wraps up the things I wanted to show you from the trip. I am letting it all soak in as I finish working on my travel journal. Sister and I have been doing FaceTime sketchtime and completing some pages. I see what she does, I get inspired to try too. Sometimes I am happy with the result and sometimes not, BUT it always makes me remember the thing better for having attempted to capture it. I love how it takes words, pictures, and drawing to put together the whole sense of on an adventure.