Gwen's Visit

Gwen is the daughter of our very good friends, Alan Cumyn and Suzanne Evans, who live in Ottawa. She was able to get 2 weeks away from her job to make a quick visit with us in Paris before we left. We have photos of Gwen and Alexander feeding each other sand on the beach at Meech Lake, aged 2 or so. So it was a bit surprising after nearly 5 years to meet this graceful and self-possessed young woman at the airport.

She seemed to enjoy herself a lot and, of course, Paris in the spring is always delightful. These photos were taken last weekend when she, Alexander, Catharine and I made a quick visit to the Louvre to see the Babylon exhibit. Lots of clay tablets with cuneiform markings on them. Mind-boggling how anyone was able to decipher them. Anyway, we puzzled our way through the tablets part, enjoying seeing along the way some interesting artifacts such as the actual piece of stone on which Hammurabi's code was scratched. Then a quick tour of the high points of any Louvre visit, including the Mona Lisa and the statue of Victoire, followed by an Italian supper on the left bank.

We said good-bye to Gwen this morning, as she flew back to Ottawa. We wish her luck with her upcoming auditions for theatre school.

View the photos or the slideshow. Beware, some of the more abstract photos come from Alexander and I spending time in the coffee shop waiting for Gwen and Catharine to visit the dungeons. Our artistic sides were clearly being stimulated: pay special attention to Alexander's studies of a cafeteria table top.

Alexander Goes to the Prom

Alexander went to his high school prom last night. It's now 3:30 in the afternoon the next day and he's still not home because he stayed at the Greigs -- but we did get a telephone update a couple of hours ago and he seems to have had a good time. Just thought people would like to seem him in a tux (un "smoking" en France). Lots of shots of his parents looking proud and him looking a bit like he's being held captive.

Photos / Slideshow

Ski Trip to Samoens

This year's ski trip to the Alps, probably our last for awhile, took us to Samoens in the area known as the Grand Massif. It was a funny week for weather with a couple of days of really hot sun, a few days of thick fog and a few somewhere in between. In the end, I think we might have had the most fun skiing in the fog as a group. Talk about trust and letting go of that need for control!

We were four families (8 adults and 8 kids) in a large chalet on a working farm. (In the photos I included one of a steaming pile of manure just to emphasize that point.) We had big group dinners every night with large quantities of wine and good cheer, music and movies and board games. Charles broke his wrist on the first run (bad luck Charles) but there were always kids around to play with and he ended up having a good time. Cat didn't get any skiing in after Charles broke his wrist (I think she took about 4 turns) but did get some x-country and hiking in.

See the photo album or slideshow.

Chateau Amboise

On their kind invitation, we joined Bob and Sue Greig for a quick trip to Chateau Amboise in the Loire valley for the weekend. We had a wonderful supper on the Friday night and spent Saturday exploring the chateau and its environs. The Chateau is most famous as the resting place of Leonardo da Vinci. It is where he spent the last years of his life. It is an interesting story (and better told on Wikipedia than I can manage). The visit solved a mystery for me, which is "why does the Mona Lisa hang in the Louvre and not somewhere in Italy? He brought three of his favourite paintings with him from Florence: the Mona Lisa or "La Joconda" as the French call it and the famous one of St. John the Baptist pointing skyward. I can't remember the third. But this is, I suppose, why these paintings are in the Louvre; they simply stayed in France. As you can see from the photos the day was spectacular. I wasn't able to take any of the house where Leonardo lived, but it was a lovely home down beside a small stream that joins the Loire at Amboise.

View the photo album or slideshow.