It is slowly starting to warm up here in Paris. I’m so happy. It actually got up to 30 degrees F. yesterday and although it still felt cold outside, it was definitely warmer. There was snow on the ground two days ago, and we may get a snow flurry on Sunday but by next week my weather reports says the highs will be in the 40′s which makes me very happy. I’ve been out a bit but only took some videos so that’s all I’ve got.

A very short video I took in my local Monoprix showing all of the yogurt for sale. There is also a look at the cheese but this wasn’t all of it. There is also packaged cheese in another long refrigerated unit. I was getting some strange looks so I stopped.

Something else we did, the day of the snow, was go to a tennis tournament called the GDF Suez Open where top women in professional tennis play. We usually go each year. I like women’s tennis much more than men’s as you don’t have those sometimes four or five hour games. When the players for the match were announced it was rather spectacular with rock star lights and music. I have a bit of Maria Sharapova playing trying to capture that noise she makes when she hits the ball. Maurice and I saw her at the qualifying event at Rolland Garros when she just came on the scene. She was making that noise even then. We watched for a while and she was losing and we went to another court but kept hearing her play and when we went back she had made a come back and won the game. She has a lot of spirit.

This new year finds me in Switzerland and here, on January 4yh, still waiting for the grandson to be born. He is taking his time. The youngest grandson asked his mother, “Is that baby going to burst through your human parts?” I think the labor has started but it keeps stalling. So we’ve had Christmas, New Year’s Eve and the grandsons have been happily playing with their new toys.

The boys wanted to make gingerbread men and watched a Martha Stewart DVD to get the recipe. The oldest, a ten year old, wrote it all out. I love the result of his recipe.

The view from the back of my son’s home. It would look like a Christmas card if there were only some snow. It has been raining lightly here today and higher on the mountains you can see a dusting of snow. Maurice says there is a French saying that goes: If you are in the sun on your balcony at Christmas, you will be in front of your Chimney at Easter. That may prove to be true this year.

So I wish for all of you a very happy, healthy and prosperous new year. Make it a good year. I would like a lot more travel this year myself. I was trying to think of the highlights of 2011 and for me it all involved travel: our trip to Simi in Greece, our road trip through Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Norway, and then my trip to England. It was all great. Happy New Year!

We had our Thanksgiving meal on Saturday night since most French aren’t free on Thursdays. I asked each person there what they thought Thanksgiving was and after the meal I asked what food they had liked best. At one point the camera got turned so you see me or the wall and not what I wanted to show. I didn’t show their faces just to keep it anonymous. I used to get depressed each Thanksgiving in Paris as it just wasn’t the same but time rolls on and now it’s fine. It was fun to share the meal with some French friends.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my American readers. I am once again celebrating this holiday in Paris and having the actual Thanksgiving meal on Saturday since the French people coming work on this day. I made a trip to a store in the Marais called Thanksgiving owned by a couple from Louisiana where you can find things that can be difficult to find in Paris such as cranberries. It’s very expensive from my point of view but everything is imported. I entered with a friend and the store was full of Americans. My friend struck up a conversation with one of the women and my friend asked her why she was in Paris and she said, “I married a Frenchman” and my friend said, “So did I!” and I said, “So did I!” I asked her if she had a blog but she didn’t. An American man asked the difference between condensed milk and evaporated milk and we all told him. He was making pumpkin pie so we directed him to the evaporated milk. It was just a lot of fun in there, sort of like a party. I bought some items for my coming meal.
This video, which I can’t get imbedded for some reason, shows a bit of the trip there and the interior of the store. Just copy and paste at Youtube to see it.

A visit to the Tower of London is always a must if you are in London. It’s a little like Disneyland as it is so perfect and clean without any rides of course.

Love the Beef Eaters. They aren’t sure how they got their name. Prince Albert designed their costumes.

We took a free tour with this man who was very entertaining. They, the Beef Eaters, live on the grounds with their families. They are in the army before they take this post. Sometimes, he told us with horror, he has to wear tights with a special ceremonial costume.

You can see the Tower Bridge from there.

Some more soldiers changing guard there.

One view of part of the complex. Note the flag being whipped by the wind. Every day I ended up carrying my coat so didn’t take it this day and got very chilled in the wind.

There are all sorts of coastal roads in Cornwall and we could have done several but ended up doing the one called the Penwith Peninsula. We had another windy day-the girl giving the weather report said it would be “blowey” and she was right.

Our first stop was a little village called Zennor and in the church there is what is called “The Mermaid Chair”. There have been mermaid sightings in the water around Zennor over the years. Apparently, the church considers a mermaid a sort of symbol of Christ.

All of Cornwall is covered with remains of former tin mines. You can see one far below. We climbed up to look for an ancient ruin which we think we found but the view was the best of all.

One of the tin mine ruins. They always had chimneys which I think means they burned ore to get the tin.

Just a very small section of the Levant Mine which had many chimneys. They mined right by the ocean a mile underground. Thirty one men were killed there when an elevator malfunctioned.

Here is a photo of what it looked like at one time. It was a hard job and most men who worked there didn’t live much past 30.