Barbara: For the next week,
instead of our usual blog posts, I’ll be blogging from Paris! I’ll post my
experiences and photos, and Deb will chat with you in the comments section
below. I’ll catch up with the comments when I get back, but—if I can get to the
comments while I’m here—I will happily take Paris recommendations from you! Not
sure what time of day the posts will go up, but I will try and schedule them so
they correspond with the usual 8am EST.
So, why am I in Paris, you
ask? Well, some of you may remember that my newly-graduated fashion design
daughter is doing an internship here. And one of the perks of having a husband
who travels a lot: flight and hotel points! How could we miss the chance to see
our girl in action in one of the most romantic cities in the world? Well, we
couldn’t. So we decided to do what we’d never before imagined doing: going all
the way to Europe … for only 5 days.
Jetlag be damned, we are having
an adventure!
Okay, before I get to the
juicy Paris stuff, can I just tell you how I totally “Barb-ed” my packing? (We’ve blogged here before about the verb Deb and I affectionately throw around—“to
Barb something”, “you’ve really Barb-ed that”—which means, in a nutshell, you’ve
done something in the most complicated, least logical way). So, inspired by
Deb’s dedicated packing lessons and by the fact that my daughter is a fashionista
and also that we’re going to Paris, baby,
I decided to prepare what I was going to take on my trip, instead of throwing a
bunch of clothes into my suitcase and hoping for the best. My choices would be
important as I need to be comfortable for all the walking we’ll be doing, the
weather is cool and damp, and I still want to look somewhat together. I took a
page out of Deb’s pointer list and chose the outfits and photographed them
ahead of time. How did I Barb it? Well, I tried to photograph the outfits ON
ME, and without using the sensible girl’s tactic of photographing my reflection
in the mirror (or asking someone else to do it), I balanced my iphone against
the teakettle and tried to snap. This is me trying to get as much as I can into
frame while still engaging the shutter button…
Silly, huh? It only took me
SEVERAL DAYS OF CONTEMPLATION to realize that I could … lay the clothes on my
bed and take the picture. This is especially Barb-idiculous given that DEB’S
EXAMPLE IS WHAT INSPIRED ME—AND SHE LAID THE CLOTHES ON HER BED AND TOOK THE
SHOTS (see our old post)!! Anyway, I figured it out.
Tuxedo-ish shirt. And, no, the jeans will not be unzipped...
Lapis necklaces from my grandparents.
Barb-reposterousness aside,
I’ve never felt so prepared for a trip before. No more staring forlornly at my
suitcase and wondering why I brought that stupid t-shirt when I really need a
warm sweater!
So Phil and I land in the
lovely country of France, in the unparalleled city of Paris, and of course,
only have eyes for our beautiful daughter. Stefanie was able to get a few days
off and has organized a full itinerary for us. Not that we need to follow it
exactly, she was careful to point out, but Phil and I were really looking
forward to seeing the city through her eyes.
So this is our Paris
loveliness, Paris through our Stefanie, and Paris en famille!
Ahhh, the flowers and produce of the markets...
The beautiful shop windows of Paris!
This is a Paris must-see: Shakespeare and Company. Yes, famous for being a Hemingway hangout, featured lovingly in his marvelous "A Moveable Feast", but it's fantastic in its own right. A warreny, magical, mysterious bookshop, filled with the new and the very old. With little side-rooms dedicated to poetry (leave your own!), with scraps of paper tucked into books that you're encouraged to find and assemble into your own story, with a writer's room upstairs where a writer reads his work so fellow reader/writers can remark and give feedback, with an utterly knowledgeable staff, we couldn't get enough of it. We had to drag ourselves away, and left energized and inspired.
You're not supposed to take photos on the "first" floor (which is my "second"), but this was a sneak shot from the inside of a writing booth. I figured since everyone else was taking shots, and since this space is maintained by the public, I could sneak it.
Thousands of "love locks" on the bridge over the River Seine
Hotel de Ville
Art in Place Vendome
Us being "glamorous". Did we succeed?
This was an incredible first day. I was so worried about the jetlag, what with only 3 1/2 hours sleep on the plane and a 1 hour nap in the hotel, I was sure I would be dragging myself through the day. But I felt amazing! And then to top off our perfect first day, what better luck than to meet up with two of our dearest friends in the world (friends for over 30 years!) because they are in town to pack up their old apartment?! Meet Mike (far left) and Josée (left of Phil). Josée is the culinary genius behind Epicurious Generations (link here and on our sidebar). We had a final nightcap (after an "haute gastronomique" dinner) with them and their friends at our hotel before falling into bed at 1:30am! Divine, mmmmm....
Barbara: Deb and I have been
regaling you this last week with stories of our happy adventures—and today will
be no different. We hope you enjoy peaking into the “Spring into Fall” fun
we’ve been having lately.
Don’t you love how life does that
sometimes? I mean, sometimes it’s all seriousness and work and troubles and
woes, and sometimes—even while the seriousness and work may still abound—there
is a surfeit of interesting, eye-opening and wonderful new experiences to be
had. And relished. And, well, shared here!
As you may remember, Deb is
in New York this week with her man and several of their friends. It is a time
to celebrate milestone birthdays and lifelong friendships. I’m sure when she
gets back she’ll have more goodies to share with us, but for now she’s going to
check in here only if she can (I reassured her we could carry on quite nicely
without her for a few days … yes, only a few
days!).
So today we’re going to pass
the time by reveling in a bit of Nuit Blanche fun. For those of you who don’t
know what Nuit Blanche is, you can read a past post about it here or you can just believe me when I say: it’s a one-night, all-night,
all-city, free and open to the public contemporary art exhibit, where the wild,
the amazing, the weird, the wonderful, the thought-provoking and the truly
inspirational are thrown together with, like, oh, 1,000,000 excited fans. It’s
an incredibly special night that Deb and I now look forward to (we’ve gone for
6 of its 7 Toronto-based years) like kids look forward to Christmas.
Obviously if you don’t live
here, going to Nuit Blanche isn’t an option (and for some of you living here,
it might still not be an option, for many reasons from lack of interest to lack
of patience), but I still think it’s worth a page-full of blog time. Deb wanted
to bring her shmancy camera that night so she could take some epic shots, but
then realized she didn’t want to schlep the beast around for the 7 hours we
spend hiking the city, so all the photos are from our iphones.
Hope you enjoy!
I'm too lazy to caption all the artists and piece titles, but if you're curious you can find the credits at the Nuit Blanche website. The theme this year was apocalypse and resurrection.
This entire exhibit took place in a parking garage under Nathan Philip Square, downtown Toronto. An amazing space for an apocalyptic exhibit. Creepy and lonely (even full of people). These pieces were very provocative.
Deb in art silhouette
The effect of these commercial images being "sucked" into this huge City Hall beam was eerie and mesmerizing.
Another creepy discovery: we watched this real-life tableau of zombies on a set and took our photos, but it wasn't until Deb sent me this image that we both saw the aliens on the ground.
Candy!
Without flash.
With flash.
Nathan Philip Square and a stunning video montage. To the right of this, a choir singing revival hymns to glorious perfection.
This Nuit Blanche was supposed to be a Pluie Blanche (which means we expected rain, rain, rain rain). But we had a spectacular night, warm and clear, and were doubly honoured to find ourselves near this church as the full moon floated into view near the spire. Thrilled to see this, Deb and I began snapping photos then sending them to our husbands. As you can see, the image did not quite capture the rapture. Aaaand the husbands weren't at all impressed. To add insult to injury, Deb captioned her email to Colin with "Best exhibit of all: God's handiwork.".Sadly, auto-correct sent the message to him as, "Best exhibit of all: Fob's instagram." ??? ... Haven't laughed so hard in years :)
Barbara:
Deb and I thought it would be fun to launch a “Five Crazy Things” theme from
time to time on our shorter Tue/Thurs post. The idea is that we would share our
five first thoughts on whatever the topic of the day is.
As I’m out of
town this week and don’t have much internet, Deb is handling the more
substantial posts and I will post today and Thursday’s “quickie” and check in
when I can.
So the topic for
today—an EASY one (and not very “crazy”), I think, which is designed to get us
rolling so we can see how it goes—is to share the five places you’d most like
to go.
Barbara: Yesterday, Deb and I
fell in love. He’s a sexy beast, tall, rugged, soulful eyes. But he’s not
afraid to show his soft side too: he loves to give warm kisses and lay his head
on your shoulder. We won’t even mention here that his kisses are tinged with
green and he sometimes shakes his head in a particularly goofy way when he gets
nervous, gums all flapping and nostrils flaring (that only happened when he
first met us, before he understood on a visceral level that we were meant to be
the best of friends).
Our new boy-crush is none
other than the tall, dark, and handsome Red.
Red!
We had the great privilege of
meeting and communing with Red thanks to the lovely, kind, and sincerely sweet
Mary-Jo—who you’ll know from our comments section here. Jo lives not far from
us and invited us on a very special excursion to meet her new horse. She picked
us up at Deb’s house, then drove us the half-hour or so to the stables where Red
lives and where she visits him on a daily basis.
Mary-Jo!
The stables? Okay, more
elegant and certainly cleaner than my house!! Yeah, they are that good. Jo
explained to us that she met her own personal “horse whisperer” many years ago
and now follows her to whichever stable she is at. I think Jo has the best of
all worlds at this place. And Red too.
The stables!
He is loved here and gently
guided and nurtured. For some reason, he won’t budge for many riders. But he
and Jo clicked at first sight back in December of this year. You’ll see in
these videos how literally “unmoved” he was with Deb and I. In fact, if you
look closely, you’ll see his eyes going all soft and sleepy—like he’s enjoying
a good nap while we beg and coax.
Jo was a bit embarrassed by
her horse’s, um, lack of performance, but she needn’t have worried. We were in
his thrall. He impressed us with his light feet and agile gait while Jo took
him around the paddock. His hair is glossy, his features fine and elegant. The
fact that he only wanted to nuzzle us and look deep into our eyes was icing on
the cake.
Afterward, Jo took us to this
adorable little café in the woods where we ate a truly delicious meal and
enjoyed the clean air. While Red may have been the star in our little
get-together, make no mistake, we fell in love with Jo too. As dear and sincere
in real life as she is here in our virtual neighbourhood, we were thrilled to
get to know her better, share stories, and relax in her lovely, loving presence.
Lunch!
Friends!
Deb: Red is my new boyfriend. I love him and I think he knows it.
Wow you guys, what a lovely day we had. He is such a soulful beast and Jo is
the most engaging and laidback gal. I had known her previously in a few social
settings so it was lovely to see the very core of her on this day. It was one
of those days that you know you are going to do again. It really made me wish I
had continued my early 10-year-old horseback riding lessons. I had a really
traumatic experience and it frightened me from riding. Not from horses, but
from riding. But Red, sensing my need to—if you will excuse me for this—get
back on the horse ... made me want to.
