I hope everyone had a Happy Valentine’s Day. I did. It isn’t a holiday that holds much emotion for me. I never make a big deal out of it but it’s always nice to be remembered. As I read on someone’s blog, flowers and chocolate are nice, but clean the kitchen for me, take out the garbage and I will be yours for life.

 Here are a few photos I took mostly in pink or red that look good enough to eat.

Ready for Valentine’s Day

Makes me want to try ballet dancing

 A little creation that I would love to buy for my grand daugher

 All little girls are, of course, angels

The French are really good at making lovely, lucious windows

 I’m not talking about hot chocolate. In fact, I’m going to say something negative about Switzerland here. I personally don’t even know anyone from Switzerland. If you happen to be Swiss I hope this doesn’t offend you. This is really about perceptions that people can have, especially me as an American. I really do think Americans don’t get the full news, the true story sometimes. News is often slanted. I’m sure it happens in other countries as well, not even counting those countries that totally control the newpapers and television. It probably happens in France although I have to say that I will see things on TV here that aren’t shown in the States on the news.

 Anyway. One day while at a tennis match I took a break to make my way to the toilets. On the way back I saw and smelled some waffles being made and stopped and bought one with chocolate on it. Later as Maurice and I passed by the stand he asked if I wanted one and I told him that I’d eaten one earlier. That’s when he said, “You mean like a Swiss?” I said, very puzzled, “What? How is that like a Swiss?” He explained to me that during WWII, when Switzerland declared itself neutral, many people right across the border in France were starving and the Swiss, who weren’t, didn’t help them. Maurice had relatives who lived near Annecy which is 30 minutes from Switzerland. Now I know you can’t paint the whole country with the same brush and that there were many brave people in Switzerland who helped many people during the war. Really, is there one country in this world that doesn’t have something to be ashamed of? The USA and the Indians–hello.  France with its Vichy government during WWII, etc.

 But it made me realize that I had been taught to think of Switzerland and their neutrality as noble. I’m not sure why. It made me change my perception then of something I’ve always assumed. Maybe being neutral isn’t noble. It’s a way of staying on the fence, not getting involved and sometimes taking advantage of those not neutral, but suffering in a war. It was a horrible time. Perhaps if they had been invaded it would have been different. I don’t know enough about history to even know why Germany didn’t invade Switzerland. I read that the Alps made an invasion look to difficult to Hitler.

 At first when Maurice started saying that to me-”Oh, like the Swiss?” I was a little amused but now it makes me mad. It’s like saying I’m selfish and it sends me off like a rocket. Of course, when he is in the kitchen making tea for himself, does he ask me if I would like some? Not usually. Then I tell him, “Don’t ever call me a Swiss again!”

 Any Swiss out there reading this who would care to give me their views?

 Have you ever tried to type on a keyboard from another country? It’s not easy. the French keyboard, while using the same letters of the alphabet, has put a few keys in different places. The m, w and a are not where I always find them and I always end up typing Lindq to use just one example.

 The other day I was in an office with a French keyboard gallantly and very slowly typing an e-mail. I gave a sigh in the middle of it. I couldn’t find the apostrophe anywhere. A French person had to get up and come over to my computer and point it out to me. And their period, while in the same place, has to have the shift key. All of the numbers need the shift key as well. A French person pointed out to me how difficult it was for them to use the American keyboard (I assume it’s American,it’s querty at any rate) because it has none of the accents that they use. My husband has a way of making the keyboard French using a special editor so he can add these. You can also use various little “secret codes” to add accents but they really slow you down.

 When we were in Morroco we went into an Internet cafe and not only was the keyboard French, it also had symbols used in the Morrocan language. The period was clear over on a little numerical pad. I didn’t answer many emails there. I got to thinking what a Chinese keyboard would look like and found this: IME Tutorial Apparently, they don’t have a keyboard but have to use a special program to change what is written to the Chinese language.

 It always amazes me at the many things in the world that never occurred to me until I traveled. Or studied.

To say that I have a bad French accent doesn’t even come close to how horrible it is. I have found that when I try to speak in French, as in a shop for instance, and the person isn’t looking at me, they don’t even hear me. For some reason my language isn’t processed by their brain as something to pay attention to. I have to get them to look at me and repeat what I said so they realize that this strange sound that didn’t enter their consciousness is, indeed, a form of French.

 I was reading a blog the other day-I read so many that I can’t remember which one-in which someone commented that it is easier for a foreigner to understand a foreign language when it isn’t being spoken by a native. I’ve started to listen more carefully to English speakers speaking French and I think they might be right. I’m not sure why this is. Do they speak slower, separate words more, speak more clearly? I don’t know.

 I had an example of this when Maurice and I were in Thailand. We were on some sort of little tour and the guide was speaking in English. I, by the way, had trouble understanding the guide’s English. Maurice asked a question in English and the guide told him that he had a great English accent. I said, “Wait a minute. I have a good accent. I’m American. He’s French.” It mystified me at the time but I think it was an example of a foreigner speaking another language not his own.

 Photos of a few faces that I took one day walking around the Left Bank, mostly near Rue du Buci.

The face on a fancy door knocker

 I hadn’t noticed this face before until someone turned on a light in the stairwell which it is under-it is inside an apartment building which used to be a private home.

 This face is on the outside of the same building. I’ve always wondered if it was of the original owner of the building.

A door handle on a place which specializes in frog legs

 I assume this dog belongs to the owner or manager of a cafe on Rue du Buci. He is always there. People think he is so cute and talk to him, try to get his attention but he is like, “Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Then he sees a dog coming down the street and he is all alert and active. I don’t know if he is guarding his territory or just glad to see some animal from his own species in the neighborhood.

 ”I’ll have what she’s having”

I’ve always thought of myself as a pretty confident person but when it comes to trying to push myself to sell something, I dry up, come to a complete stop. I want to do something with my photography and really don’t know where to start so I am setting up a little “shop” over at Cafe Press and you can see the link over to the right there. I thought I would do a little survey. I sure would appreciate it if you would let me know which photos you like the best–which one would you buy on a t-shirt or card. Which one would you like as a poster, that sort of thing. Would you like more formal photos? Just sticking my toe in the water. I makes my heart beat faster, with fear, I think. Use my email, please, if you can’t get a comment to post. lpennin104@aol.com. Thank you!

Here they are:

French Frog

French Girls

Monet Day

Paris Lovers

French Kiss (maybe)