In my continuing endeavor to become elegant, a la Balzac, I am stopping through Paris yet again before heading to the south. This time, only two days prior
On the Fat Tire Bike Tour of Paris - Magnifique!
to my departure, my two childhood friends, Luisa and Susan, decided to join me! I love spontaneity and I love friends who practice it even more. We had all been here before, so we toured leisurely, indulged gluttonously, laughed incessantly. The highlights I would say were visiting the little town of Chartres, just outside of Paris, with its impressive though somehow intimate cathedral… and discovering wonderful sweets and chocolates. Also, the four hour bike tour through Paris via Fat Tire Bike Tours…highly recommended! We were deep in the traffic of this bustling city and covered a lot of ground on a rare sunny blue sky day in April. We covered lots of ground, literally, and it was an entirely new approach to soaking up the abundant sights of this, the world’s most visited city. Oh yes, because the bike ride wasn’t strenuous enough, I hiked up 900+ steps of the Tour D’Eiffel! I didn’t want to lose my hiking conditioning 😀 . We felt very Bohemian as we enjoyed a sunny picnic on the steps of the Sacre Coeur… listening to casual musicians, downing rich sweet treats procurred from the patisserie. My friends later treated me to a very special belated birthday dinner at a wonderfully garish restaurant near the Opera house.
Even dogs are artistes in France
Then, after bidding them adieu (am I impressing you with the occasional French vocab? No? Rats!), I continue on to southern France to visit with my French instructor and friend Francoise, where she toodled me all over the countryside, mercilessly teasing me with picturesque southern France countryside and not stopping to allow me to snap any pictures! She is a wise woman, Francoise, for she knows had she started, we would never have left her little quaint town. Not that that would have been so bad, being sequestered in a hamlet of stone buildings with wild flowers eking out an existence from ancient cracks… We visited old stone french farmhouses for various brunches and lunches… sigh….asparagus souffle – need I say more? This was some of my favorite time in France, savoring these edible tidbits while sharing worldviews or pondering the identity of the birds we had seen that day. Here began the conspiracy to stuff me like a fois gras goose. HOW can one resist or decline an invitation to enjoy farm fresh (French even!) cheeses with farm direct pates and toasted french bread and salad and red wine every night as a snack?! until midnight or 1am? huh? Answer me this please…
(All photos by G. Stark)
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