Jonesin' for Paris

I received this letter from Soula this week. I miss them terribly, but I know they are having a much needed adventure, complete with the stinky cheeses they adore so much. They are an inspiration to me; particularly, how they have raised Stef to be such a cool kid who has such a strong sense of who he is and how to be. Vive la france et les joneses!

To: Tam
Subject: The French Connection

Hey, I mean, Salut Tam,
We've finally moved into decent apartment. It's
actually great. We're in the Marais--old Jewish
quarter, and now very hipsterish/historic. Have been
wearing too much black, so clothes don't show the
dirt, cause god knows washing is a drag here, cause
there's no clothes dryer and so I smell even more than
usual (hence all the perfum here, I suspect).
But we have nothing to complain about. Apt. on 3rd
floor looks out onto open corner covered over with
trees and little cafes and the busiest community
center I've ever seen. There is something going on
over there all the time--karate, book publishing
convention, fashion shows. The French are so into
civic gatherings, which I gotta say generate a lot of
garbage (small mountains of it are picked up on Monday
mornings, right below our bedroom window). But really,
the amount of interesting events open to the public
here is ENORMOUS. Whole newspapers given out for free
have page after page of really interesting
gatherings--chocolate shows, dress makers openings,
wooden peg displays--everything is made to sound like
it's the definitive event--an extravaganza. It's
encroyable. I like reading about all this stuff,
although I haven't attended a single one.

We decided that the only way we're going to improve
French is to learn French songs, which we started
today. Charles Aznavour's La Boheme is numero uno on
the list cause a friend of a friend suggested it. and
now we're big Aznavour friends. His fan website is
completely fromage, although Charles himself was a
very cool guy.

Had the cute Frederic over for dinner last night and a
woman from Seattle! (Linda Merrell). We've made some
amis, especially a couple from DC with two kids. So we
are not lonely. And the people who normally rent this
apartment are being friendly. They're Australians/French
and he's buying an all-night club here when they
return from Australia. Otherwise, they're totally
normal people, into their two kids. Oh, and we went to
"Ballywood" night at the British Embassy. I wish you
were there! First of all, you would have probably won
the sari competition, and then the DANCING was pretty
hot, with real live Indian men!!! And maybe we could
have even played some tennis on the all-grass court.
(The mother of one of Stefan's school mates works as
secretary at the Brit Embassy, hence the invite).
Otherwise, we've been slumming it in style. They have
the most amazing frozen food stores here--Picard. But
since Chris is making some pasta now, I've got to cut
this email short and help out. So I'll go on about the
amazingness of Picard some other time.
I hope Linda and Jamie make it over here. And I hope
you guys do, too. You'd LOVE where we live now.
Starting Jan., we'll be a bit farther out--in
the 17th arron., but that's got it's
own village charm.
hugs and kisses to you and Em,
Soula