We're HERE!!

 Finally, on our way!
We left Richmond, VA yesterday later than expected. Scheduled departure: 4h30, actual departure 5h15! Why? We start to taxi out to the runway, then the pilot comes on saying that there is a problem with a passenger being buckled in and we have to return to the gate. !!! Turns out some woman couldn't get her child to buckle up! They were in the back of the plane, we were closer to the front. The child was screaming hysterically. We were thinking maybe it was sick and thinking if the child does this all the way to Atlanta the other passengers are going to be going crazy!The flight attendant finally called the pilot and told him what was going on and he made the decision to put them off the plane. We were late into Atlanta and some people were going to miss their connection. But people were so relieved that they didn't have to listen to shrieking the whole way. Luckily, we had plenty of time for our continuing flight to Paris.

 We did get to see some gorgeous sunset at the airport while waiting to take off.

 I shot this out of the window as we were landing in Atlanta. It's so festive!

 Here's all of the mail waiting for us at the Cite when we arrived. We were at reception, filling out the paperwork, and they handed us this. I think they were pretty awed by it! Mail from Katerina, Val, Mary, Emmy, Kerri, & Annie. Wow, we are so fortunate - to be in Paris and to get so much wonderful mail.




After we set up the studio, which is a living and working in space. We went to sleep for a couple hours. We got up and went shopping for dinner. Here are some of the things we bought and there is Traveling HiMonkey in the midst of the dinner fixings.

In the 700s with Mail Art & a preview

 I'm having fun playing with the labels that my daughter gave me. A happy series for the new year.

 I'm using cut up cereal boxes for the substrate and allowing some of the color from the box show.

 I've added either my white chalk pencil marks or used the koh-i-noor pencils that are a sort of metallic blue and gold colors.

 These postcards put me into the 770's in numbering since I started counting 1 Dec. 2010. I'm going to keep track until 1000, or not.

This is a photo of me, taken in Paris in 2008. In 2 weeks, I'll be standing here again, on the Pont de la Tournelle, the only thing that will look different is my hat. I have a new one to wear this winter.

Juedi (thursday) evening

Last night, we went to the restaurant at the Mosquee de Paris with a couple we'd met at the Cite last fall. None of us had been to this place, though I'd heard about how good the food was from others. We walked over there, chatting the whole way, so that it seemed like a short distance. We had cous cous, which was excellent, and some sweet mint tea, and got to choose our dessert from this big tray of pastries. Hard to decide. We each chose a different one and shared. They were all good. We walked back by going all the way around the Jardin des Plantes. As we were passing the final length of fence, C said, "It smells like horses!" Ah, we were passing the menagerie area of the park. We pressed our faces to the bars of the fence and saw a pen with some dark shapes, that we couldn't identify. Animals? Holes in the ground? We looked very closely. Then our friend said, "It moved!" Oh my, it was a long neck attached to the shape, not a pipe sticking out of the ground. A long neck with a head attached. Then we could see that it was two ostriches (or in that family) lying on the ground with their heads up. One was turned a bit to look at us, maybe. It was such a surprise and a treat. We then crossed the street and continued our walk through the Plein Aire Sculpture garden along the Seine. There were lots of sculptures, some nice trees, and lots of young people enjoying themselves in groups, with food, bevereages, and a guitar. The tourist dinner boat passed by, stopping to show the passengers a beautifully lit up weeping willow tree. The Pont de Tournelle looked beautiful with nice lighting above and below. When we crossed over the Pont Marie towards the Cite, C pointed out the hundreds of people on roller blades going past on the Quai des Celestins. The sound was very interesting, a low level roar. What a night for all our senses: sights, tastes, smell and sound.