Wrapping up the summer visitor log

We are winding down the days of this European adventure and I still haven't written down several trips of the past summer - let alone my thoughts on "re-entry" as it is called here.

After Provence there was no pause in the flow of great friends arriving on our doorstep. Culley spent another week with us, exploring Paris and sleeping off being a teenager. His sheepishness about talking to strangers (and that included Pat and me) started slowly to thaw so that by the end of his third week with us I think he was actually really enjoying himself and was rather "chatty."  Hats off to all of my friends parenting teenagers -- I don't know how you do it.  The lack of any feedback made me crazy.

To save the day, however, Lisa arrived a couple of days before Culley left, and brought with her that sense of adventure and the curious eye that always reinvigorates me, and which Culley found hysterical. The three of us trooped up to the top of the Arc de Triomphe and took a great panoramic of Culley and the famous Parisian monuments.

Lisa stayed for a month and while we got off to a rocky start - we had an absolute blast. The first week she was here we found out how to renew a lost passport (hers) and restore one's seized bank account (ours) from the french tax authority foregoing plans to go to Giverny and spending one luxurious afternoon sleeping in the front yard sunning and reading. We took thousands of photos! The second week we got heatstroke in Giverny, missed a champagne tour in Reims and went out like mauraders in the night in Tours capturing photos of Chenonceau and Tours high spots. Pat joined us for a fantastic day that we spent in Etretat, a coastal town with beautiful chalky cliffs that have inspired romantics forever.

There is nothing more pleasant than exploring someplace new with someone whom you dearly love and who is just as enthusiastic as you are about the adventure. The photos are only the icing on the cake, but they trigger the memories of the conversations, the moments, and the emotions that we were experiencing at the time.

After Lisa left, I crashed physically and emotionally for a few days, while we awaited Pat's arrhythmia procedure and started thinking about getting this train bound for the US.

Kelly's arrival while Pat was still in the hospital was a great help, as we could focus on her, and not on our fears about this heartbeat that won't settle down. But Kelly's visit was too short, and soon she was shuffling off to the airport with all her goodies (a sweater coat to die for that she had to buy because she couldn't let go of it and they wouldn't let her leave the store with it clutched in her hands). She had to leave this matching dress behind, though is still hopeful Mom will make it for her.

So that left the maddening silence of an empty house and the waning days of indian summer. The seasons, both of them, change rapidly here, and the fall of autumn/winter is not one that I look forward to. However this year, fall has come in gently, with warm days, colder nights and lots of sunshine. The trees change here, though not with the same waves of dazzling colors - usually they are muted in the monochrome gray sky and have little sunlight to burn through bringing out the colors, but this year, we did have some moments of beautiful days, and we have tried to take advantage of that.

One amazing spectacle is Paris' Nuit Blanche. It's scheduled around the October full moon, and is highlighted by outdoor art exhibits all over three or four hip neighborhoods, typically along a particular Metro line. The party doesn't start until about 9, and lasts literally all night, so we didn't get home until about 3 a.m. -- that's definitely all night for me. This year's art left a lot to be desired, but the evening was gorgeous and the moon was in all her glory.

If you want to see more pictures check out my flickr stream. But if you want to see amazing photos - you should check out Lisa's France 2009 set. (If that link doesn't work, let me know and Lisa will send you one from her account.)