The Bold Soul: A Writer's Life in Paris

The weather has turned sunny, the sunshine is warm and lovely, and the days are getting longer. Parisians are coming out of their grey winter hibernation... And apparently some of them are celebrating while they bask in all that Vitamin D-light! Read more →

I snapped this when I was on the 1st floor of the Eiffel Tower one day last week with out-of-town friends. I just read an article about the Tower having installed wind turbines up above the 2nd floor, which will now generate much of its own electricity - so the Tower has gone "green". All evidence in this photo to the contrary. Read more →

I visited the Musée de Quai Branly this week with some visiting friends (FYI, the museum is doing a special exhibition about the global history of tattoos, if that's your thing), and they have an amazing garden around and even underneath the building, which is very modern and elevated as if on stilts. At dusk, just as we were leaving, all of these glass rods lit up and created a very pretty scene. The only way I could get the Tower into the frame from where I was standing was to do my famous "tilt" thing. Then yesterday, I was up ON the Tower with the same friends, and got a shot of the Quai Branly museum from up above - just not tilted. The museum is that green-red-purplish oddly shaped structure in foreground, lower left. Worth a visit even if you aren't so into indigenous art - the architecture and layout of the museum itself is really something (and a bit maze-like!) And the museum's café (which you can visit without even paying to enter the museum, as the café is outside in a separate area) had the most decadent "mi-cuit" chocolate cake (warmed with hot fudge inside). What's... Read more →

So excited to get back out in my favorite city, to see and do and photograph things -- even on a freezing cold day. Read more →

This year in Paris, the Mairie decided to do something different. Instead of focusing the festivities on the Eiffel Tower, they moved the party to the Champs Elysées and the Arc de Triomphe, and created a wonderful spectacle complete with fireworks at the countdown. If you can overlook the idiots who thought it would be fun to use their stupid green lasers on the Arc during the entire show, it was really quite nice and very well done! I hope they do it again next year and maybe we'll get to go there in person. Although we'd probably never have as good a vantage point as we have in this video, what with thousands of people crushed into the Champs Elysées. Bonne année à tous! Enjoy! Paris célèbre le passage en 2015 avec un... by mairiedeparis Read more →

Today I was feeling pretty good, no pain at all and feeling less tired than in recent days, so today we put up our little Christmas tree. It's the first time since I moved to France that I was able to use a lot of my own ornaments that I brought over last year from back home. I have a lot more still stored in NJ but they're all the really fragile ones and will have to be carefully packed and shipped at a future date. But it made me really happy to see familiar ornaments on our tree -- including one very tiny red glass ornament with blobs of old glitter, circa 1961. It was from my first Christmas tree and the only one that survived. It's nice to see the tree up now, and it will really cheer me when I come home and it's already here to greet me. I had a nice long Skype chat with my family which will be the last opportunity to video chat with them until I'm home (unless by some miracle this hospital has WiFi), and that did me a world of good, too. My sister decorates her home so beautifully... Read more →

If I weren't so sleep deprived (experiencing a wave of insomnia the past 4 or 5 nights, where I wake up at different times during the night and then can't get back to sleep again for hours, dammit), I might have more energy for writing, and I do have a few longer posts in the works, but in the meantime here are some random images I've taken recently with my new iPhone 6. Got to say, I am LOVING the improved image quality (I already thought the iPhone 4's camera was pretty awesome, but this is even better!) At a restaurant we like near our home. We arrived early, but the place filled up very quickly. It's always full. The patron/chef makes a point to come out and shake everyone's hand; he always wears one of those flat-top straw hats. It's a lovely family business where his wife and adult kids all work there. I was on my way to meet a friend the other day, but my bus was blocked on Rue de 4 Septembre near Opéra. As I walked down that street trying to find an alternate bus, I saw WHY the street was blocked: a fire at... Read more →

The Opéra Garnier at sunset... I took these yesterday with my iPhone 4. Today I got a new iPhone 6 and wow, I wish I could retake the same shots with the better camera. But still, with the late afternoon sun on this stunning structure, how can you really go wrong? Read more →

Georges just told the entire city of Paris that he loves me... on this giant neon billboard! This billboard was placed on top of the Hôtel de Monnaie, between the Pont des Arts and Pont Neuf, and you could submit your name to be posted on the billboard for 15 seconds. Georges "cheated" a little to send me a message instead of using his name or mine, by hyphenating his name with the word for love (which is also the masculine version of Amy in French)... and apparently it worked! At about 10:46pm (we had advance warning it was coming), there it was! I am such a lucky girl. Lisa aime Georges, aussi. Read more →

Looking fine, Madame. Looking fine. Read more →