Lots of red flowers out there this month. Spring is almost here. We’ve had a couple of nice warm days but then chilly weather always arrives carried by a brisk wind. Just part of moving into spring.

A pretty bouquet in the window of a flower shop.

These pretty red flowers were in the window too.

Isn’t this elegant? I saw them in front of a hotel.

The store, l’Occitane had this lovely display on the sidewalk advertising a spring scent.

I have a thing for art deco and art nouveau architecture and one of the best examples of it in Paris, in my opinion, is the one of avenue Rapp. You can see it in the movie, Gigi, when Gigi enters the building for instruction from her aunt on how to be a lady.

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Door of thr Art Nouveau Building from the architect Jules Lavirotte at 29 avenue Rapp.

A lady was coming out of the building as I was looking at the front door so I did a quick sneak inside. This is a look at that door from the inside. The inside wasn’t as spectacular as what you see on the street.

The people who live here have this view of the Eiffel Tower. I wish someone would invite me up to their apartment just so I could get a photo from a window.

A look at one of the windows where ceramic tile was used.

I was with some people the other day who ordered some coffee and we were all surprised when we saw what came to our table-works of art. I don’t drink coffee but I think I could have managed either of these.

Coffee with whipped cream on top and a sprinkling of cinnamon.

The cappucino. I have no idea how they make those designs. I had hot chocolate with nothing at all to decorate it.

Please excuse my rather sparse posting. We are back in Paris trying to rearrange things and unpack some things we brought with us from Provence. When we moved to Provence we had all of my furniture, dishes, rugs, etc., all delivered there from where it had been in storage for a couple of years. Since we aren’t sure where we will end up or the size of it, I decided to bring my favorite persian rug and two framed pieces back to Paris. I also brought all of my candles as I was afraid they would melt because the storage unit everything is in right now is not climate controlled. Anyway, I drug the too large rug that I had in our living room to our bedroom. Most of it is under the bed with the edges sticking out on either side which is sort of strange but I didn’t have any other place to put it. I love how the rug from Provence looks in our living room. We are talking about moving the couch into another area too. In any case, I haven’t been out much with my camera but I have plans to do so this week.

On the last day when we left Provence we went to our old house for the last time to pack up a few things we had left there as well as pick up our cat. It was really strange to walk in the house and see the new owners there with, already, a few of their things scattered about. The couple seemed very happy with the house and especially loved the light. It was sort of like a WWII scenerio as the man was English, the woman German, Maurice French and me American–and here we are about seventy years later all at ease with each other. I think they will be very happy there as we were for almost eight years.

The German lady told me that she had a lady in her life who had been like a second mother. She saw her often and helped her as she got older and finally ended up in a retirement home. To her surprise, when the lady died, she was left some money. How much? Enough to help buy our house. I think she was getting repaid for her kindness to her second mother for all of those years. Also, the final papers were signed and the house became theirs on the birthday of the English man. It all seems like it was meant to be.
We sort of thought that as we were leaving that we would feel really sad and that there might even be a few tears but that didn’t happen. I just remembered how happy the new owners were, how much they loved the light in the house and was ready to turn the page. It was a long drive back to Paris but there wasn’t any heaviness of heart, just a looking forward to what was next. By the way, they said they would be glad to do a little exchange any time we wanted-they would stay in our Paris apartment and we could stay in the house. It sounds sort of fun but it sure will be strange not to have our things there.

Well, we are both sad and relieved. Sad to be leaving beautiful Provence but relieved to be leaving behind the yard work and some things we didn’t enjoy anymore.

We will really miss this view. We often would sit outside on our terrace and watch the sun set as we sipped a glass of wine and then saw the stars come into view.

Goodbye bathroom.

Goodbye bedroom.

Here’s the truck holding our furniture from Provence to be put into storage until we decide where we will go next. It won’t be the States although I would love California but I don’t see moving there when my family is elsewhere. Stay tuned as we explore a couple of other regions of France. I’m excited as we head back to Paris in our car stuffed with some things we didn’t put in storage.

To get into Switzerland to visit my son and his family we have a choice of several ways to go. Since we were in Annecy we elected to go through the Mont Blanc Tunnel. It’s over seven miles long and saves about 50 miles on a trip if you were going over the Alps without it. You have to pay over 30 Euros to use it too and there can be unbelievably long lines getting to the entrance but there were very few cars as we entered it.

My son has moved to a new little village and this cemetery is in the center of it. He lives on a hill overlooking the village. Being near the Alps, there are hills and mountains all over the place. We walked down the hill to get to the grocery store and my grandson’s schools are at the bottom of the hill as well.

A closeup look at a grand masoleum in the cemetery.

A look at the rather grand interior of a small church in the village.

Artist at work. This is the youngest grandson, Nathaniel. He’s almost three. He’s actually quite a good artist and drew a face with two eyes, a mouth, nose and hair. He put a mustache on the drawing here and I could tell what it was. He’s a genius I tell you.