AliThinks

Uh-Huh

Folks are starting to flock to Lexington for our occasion tomorrow evening.

That's right. Allan and I are getting hitched. Now, if anyone sees my brain anywhere, give me a yell, mmmkay?

Marked As Read

1000+ items in Google Reader.

I did read some things. Then I had to give up. I meant to go to bed two hours ago!

Also, my apologies for not answering comments on my last couple of posts. Those, too, were marked as read in Gmail.

Oh, and hi! I'm still alive!

A Love Affair

I'm having one. With Paris.

This will be very short, because I don't have time to craft a proper post.

I. Love. Paris.

This trip was quick and dirty, with one intention only: to pick up my kids. (And to see a couple of other bloggers along the way, bonus!) There are people I didn't get to see this time, faute de temps.

I hope to rectify that in the not-too-distant future. I'd love to spend a week or more in the City of Light; je veux flâner dans les rues avec Allan. Monuments are lovely, but I want to feel the vibe of Paris.

And I want to see the friends I didn't have the time to this past week.

Sigh. That about sums it up.

(The kids and I are back in Lexington, and I'm looking forward to this month with them. Blogging will most likely be light.)

Des Bloggeuses à Paris

Yesterday (this would be Wednesday, July 2; I'm not changing the time stamp on my blog just for three days, and it's nearly 5 am in Paris right now) I had lunch with one blogger and dinner with another.

Polly and I connected recently, and I was delighted to meet her at the same café I had a Perrier with Jeorg at last year. (And it was a total coincidence, which makes it even better). We had each had a tarte salée, salad, and a glass of rosé for lunch, then coffee. Then another coffee. The second coffee we had out on the terrasse, because the rain had stopped, and coffee on a café terrace is one of life's better pleasures. See here:

Polly's lovely daughter and her adorable friend joined us for a while, then we all went off to do other things. In my case it was a reconnaissance mission at La Droguerie.

Samantha and I arranged to meet at 7 for dinner somewhere. She crossed the Seine and we met at Les Halles, which was kind of her, since it meant I only had to walk about 300 meters. She'd heard of an Italian restaurant with great ravioli; I knew there was one on the rue Montorgueil. It turned out the be the same place, so we had ravioli (hers with figs and Parma ham, mine with truffles, Parma ham, and button mushrooms) and the house red.

By 9:30 I was back in my room, exhausted. An hour later, I was asleep. A dream woke me at 3:00, and here I am.

But what matters here is the people I met. Blogging is such an amazing thing. (YES. I know I said I thought about quitting.) You encounter people via the blogosphere, and if you're lucky enough to meet in person, you automatically have a connection. My jetlag-addled brain can't think of a better way to say that.

In any case, spending time with Polly and Sam was a great way to spend my first day in Paris. (My second day in Paris will actually involve fast trains, the city of Bordeaux, and picking up my children.)

Merci, les filles !

(Now, do I try to sleep a little more, or do I hit up the hotel breakfast in 40 minutes?)