Author: Andy Smallman

If you’re in Paris and want to find us, that’s our address. Melinda, in one of her marathon Internet sessions that usually take place while Cinderella’s coach is turning back into a pumpkin, found this apartment. In a word, it’s perfect.

It’s got all the charm of an old Parsian place, which it is, but it’s been tastefully updated by an architect with an eye for design.

In other words, it’s Melinda’s dream place.

Also, being in the 4th arrondissement it’s easy to get everywhere. Heck, our street even has its own Wikipedia page. See that falafel place? We’re above that.

The first photo is of me hitching up my trousers while waiting for the apartment owner to arrive. See the number 26? The second photo is of Melinda and me inside the tiny 4 person elevator. That would be 4 small persons. Good thing I qualify.

We’re on the top floor which in the 80 degree heat may be off-putting. But get this. We have air conditioning.

We hustled out of our apartment this morning to make it to Rose Bakery, one of our favorite Paris lunch spots, before the lunch rush we anticipated. Arriving at 10am, we were a little before the lunch rush… In fact, we were too early for lunch! Most items on their lunch menu weren’t even ready yet.

So much for the early bird getting the eggs benedict, as the old saying goes.

Still, I managed to satisfy myself on a bacon quiche and Melinda was more than happy with her granola and soy milk. I think her satisfaction also came from the Japanese slippers she bought on our way to Rose’s.

After lunch or brunch or whatever it was we ate, we spent the day wandering around.

That is, if wandering around includes hours inside Uniqlo and Galleries Lafayette.

Melinda’s favorite store in Paris may be one called Merci. After arriving in Paris this afternoon and getting situated in our wonderful apartment, we walked to Merci.

I’ll tell more about our apartment later so you’ll have to satisfy yourself with these pictures from Merci. They intend to communicate that we are now in Paris, if nothing else.

Say, it’s just after 8pm, time to take a break from blogging and get ready for a dinner in Paris, where it is hot, summer, and light until well past 10pm.

…to do a Frenchman’s job.

Melinda asked me to go to the dining car and get her a cheese sandwich. Of course I knew what she meant by this, a French baguette with a hard French cheese. On I trudged to the correct car, out of first class and into second.

I admit to feeling at home (but I could get used to the comfy seats in first class).

Anyway, I arrived in the dining car and reviewed the menu. I didn’t see a cheese sandwich but there was one with ham. I carefully avoided the tasty sounding sandwich on focaccia bread. Approaching the desk, I managed to order the ham and cheese sandwich without incident (this is no Ricard situation, if you know what I mean).

But here’s the deal. You don’t get to SEE the sandwiches before ordering, so when the man returned with what any American would recognize as a sandwich, I was flummoxed. Do I reject it after successfully ordering it, or suck it up and buy it, knowing I’ll have some explaining to do?

As you can see from the photo, I went the route of explaining.

I’m writing this while swaying back and forth on the TGV from Nantes to Paris. It’s the fast train, you know, and it takes just a little over 2 hours to get there. This is one of our favorite things to do, to ride the train in France, and here we are doing it right now.

You’ll have noticed that I entitled this post “First Class.” You may think that has to do with the quality of my traveling companion (and, frankly, you wouldn’t be wrong). But it really has to do with the fact that Melinda upgraded our tickets to put us in first class. It was only a few Euros more expensive and, anyway, one of us is worth it.

Don’t worry, though. On the return trip on Thursday we’ll be back where one of us belongs.

“Nid” means nest, although I have a tendency to pronounce it like “nez” which means nose. So depending upon your pronunciation, after going to the movie last night with Christine and Bernard, we went either to the nest or to the nose.

The “Nest” is a schwanky bar on top of the tallest building in Nantes and is a place we went last year and enjoyed. It has a wrap-around terrace that one can circumnavigate and get a 360 degree view of the city. With a cocktail in hand and in the company of good friends, it ain’t a bad place to be.

Given that I tend to pronounce this place like nose allowed for good conversation topics to emerge, among them being my mom and nose hair trimmers.

Oh, the correct way to pronounce “nid” is to say “knee.” Unfortunately, the conversation topics for knee aren’t as interesting as they are for nose.

At least in my family.

So get this. Christine noticed that Lynn’s movie “Your Sister’s Sister” was playing in Nantes!

How crazy is that??

Of course, we had to go.

This was poignant for us on so many levels. First, Melinda and I actually had not seen the movie yet, even though it came out over a year ago. Next, it’s playing in Nantes, our adopted hometown. Then there’s the fact that the movie is set in and near Seattle, in the San Juans. And that Christine and Bernard will be coming to Seattle with us next week and we are spending a weekend with them in the San Juans.

Talk about surreal.

Now on top of all of that, the movie is outstanding, at least we all thought so. It’s more like Lynn’s first movie, “We Go Way Back, ” which is my previous favorite of her films.

Let me summarize. Last night, in Nantes, Melinda, Christine, Bernard, and I went to see a movie set in Seattle written and directed by our friend Lynn.

Wow.

You might recall back on Day 74 of the sabbatical that Melinda, Chloe, Ella, and I all attended Romain’s 18th birthday party. As I said back then, it’s a big deal in France, the 18th birthday, as you are no longer a child. You have all the privileges of an adult.

So I tried to take a picture from nearly the same spot I took one on Romain’s birthday. Three years ago it was of the girls dancing to the YMCA. This one from last night is of a large group dancing to a song I didn’t know, but they sure did.

Moments before I had connected with Chloe via FaceTime so she got to dance with Manon, too!