Pastries and cemeteries

Those are the two words that seem to define our lives here in Paris, at least right now.

Susan spent her second week at Pascal's here in the 5th arrondissement, working her 12-hour days. (How like the ER, eh? White coat, 12-hour shifts. Of course the stains are chocolate now and lives no longer hang in the balance, only liters of pastry cream and kilos of choux dough.) She had a nice long talk with Pascal and, as we both suspected, he was more than willing to work with her on a more flexible schedule. In fact, he told her she could leave every afternoon at 4 instead of 6 , she can take an extra day off every week if she wants, and she even decide how long the stage (internship) will last. It's all up to her.

That is a big relief, to be sure. One would be hard-put to find someone as accommodating, or as pleasant to work for as Pascal. Plus he's actually a pretty funny guy in the bargain.

Susan had her first visitors come to the shop on Saturday (except for me of course). A couple who are friends of friends of family have recently moved to Paris (he is an assistant pastor at the American Church in Paris) and promised they would stop by to see Susan and so they did. They were kind enough to take a couple of photos of Susan in the shop -- something I have yet to do I'm sad to say -- and posted those in an email for Susie's mother to see; a very nice gesture.

March is going to be a crazy month indeed as we get ready to return to the US, with all that entails, and to take a trip back to Italy one more time to see friends in Siena and hopefully Puglia, to say arrivederci to la dolce vita one more time. . .

For me I have been putting the finishing touches on my new website:

www.pariscemeteries.com.

There is a "photo-only" version right online now. The new, updated site will also have photos of course, but I hope will provide some practical information for anyone planning a visit to the cemeteries here in Paris.

So that's it for the moment. We're off today (Sunday) to Parc de la Villette and the Museum of Science and Industry. We toured the interior of the building last September with Stan and Margie and were determined to return to explore this fantastic museum itself as well as the various other parts of this enormous complex, once the old city abbatoir.

Wish you were here,

Steve