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“He went to Paris, looking for answers to questions that bothered him so” – Jimmy Buffett<\/i><\/p>\n
So yeah, in May, I went to Paris.<\/p>\n
It was just for a couple of days, over a weekend, flying in Saturday morning and flying out on Monday. My parents had a hotel reservation that they couldn’t cancel but also couldn’t use, so I wound up using it in their place.<\/p>\n
And I really did enjoy myself. I saw the Mona Lisa<\/i>, went to the top of the Arc de Triomphe, caught sight of brand new President Emmanuel Macron’s inauguration, had some good meals, and took a bunch of pictures<\/a>. I’d been a little worried my extremely limited French wouldn’t be enough to get by, but Paris is an incredibly cosmopolitan–or at least touristy–city, and everyone I spoke to was very courteous and willing to switch to English when my lame attempts at more than merci beaucoup<\/i> didn’t pass.<\/p>\n Anyway, it’s definitely a city I’d like to return to. I saw the Arch, the Louvre, and the Mus\u00c3\u00a9e d’Orsay–which might have been my favorite–but there’s a lot I didn’t get to see in two short days. I saw the Eiffel Tower only from a distance.<\/p>\n Other than that…? Well, at work, we’ve had a bunch of changes, with people leaving for new jobs (and\/or cities), including my boss. It’s meant some added responsibilities for the rest of us, but it’s also meant just a general sense of oddness. Y’know, things change.<\/p>\n Except this cough. I’ve been trying to get that to change, trying to shake it, for weeks, and so far no real luck.<\/p>\n Anyway, it wasn’t all Parisian holidays and post-nasal drip ’round here, no sir. I also read read some short stories<\/a>, some books<\/a>, saw some movies<\/a>,and heard some music<\/a>. The usual order or things.<\/p>\n The stories<\/a><\/p>\n The books<\/a><\/p>\n I read three of them in May. Well, okay, technically I finished the last of them on June 1, but I’m gonna count it — and not just because the other two were maybe closer to novellas.<\/p>\n I really enjoyed The Sorrow Proper by Lindsey Drager, which is a meditation on books and libraries and love, with some very nice writing. I thought The Invisibility Cloak by Ge Fei was interesting. And Pyramids by Terry Pratchett…well, wasn’t my favorite Discworld book so far, but it had its moments.<\/p>\n The movies<\/a><\/p>\n I watched eleven of them in May, including three I watched on the plane back from Paris. (And am I ever glad we had to taxi for a little so I could watch how Jack Reacher 2<\/i> ends. Spoiler: badly.) Anyway, the movies I saw were:<\/p>\n I honestly don't know if I _liked_ that movie. But that ending was… And it was nice to see Jason Robards.<\/p>\n — Fred Coppersmith (@unrealfred) May 7, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n
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