Monday, May 26, 2014

Memorial Day



Belle Isle

I just returned from Paris and Belle Isle in Brittany. Belle isle is an enchanting island (blog post to follow) and one cannot forget its tumultuous past while hiking along its wild coast , with german blockaus being part of World war II military landscape and Hitler's "Atlantic Wall". One can find these monstrous structures all along the West coast of France,  protecting the Atlantic coast from allied invasions. Locals residents as well as prisoners from concentration camps built these bunkers which housed generators, ammunition storage and rockets.

I have read numbers of history books and novels taking place during World War II and have an endless fascination for this part of history that showed the worst lack of humanity and yet the incredible courage in each human being, a period of hatred and great love all at ounce.

On a walk to my village with my dad, a couple of hours before my flight back, he pointed to a small "place" in our village, remembering how his father used to hide gasoline for the "Resistants" among the fruit crates and store it there for the night. Then I went up to our cemetery to say goodbye to my beloved aunt who recently passed away and read the names of all the departed ones, young sons of the village who died in the two World wars.

One must never forget and truly be thankful for the selflessness of others who died for us.




My french village: Clemont dessous



In Memoriam…


A Bientôt,

Francine


Tuesday, May 6, 2014



Marsha, of Splenderosa, our fabulous group leader, is ending the spring monthly "By Invitation Only" with a loaded topic!

"Top 5 Things That Make You Crazy:

in other words, how to improve the universe from our own point of view, of course."

Top 5 things that make me crazy... need to think about it, but 5 things that will improve the universe is a little tasking... especially waking up from a 2 days whirlwind of working on table design for the Red Cross Gala event, as well as the flower centerpieces, installing and then, breaking down at one in the morning (Post to follow). Please forgive me for narrowing it down to my own little universe.

MESS ... I am not a nerd but cannot stand mess, clothes on armchairs, stack of things piling up, bathrooms products all over the counter, towels on the floor, I could go on and on. I live with my three men who must have some kind of vision syndrome,  that shields them from looking at their surroundings and makes them oblivious to mess. I can trace their activities from the shedding of clothes and stuff, tools, food left open, empty bottles to the delight of my dogs who love to snuggle on jackets and sweaters. I am the "CLEAN UP" monster. I have been at times known to empty my sons' room or cottage (where my older son lives) and throw everything in the courtyard. It is quite a sight, but get the job done! I like a house without clutter, open and airy and with no "stuff".Being more of a minimalist when it comes to furniture in my house, clutter has no room for it.

GLASSES... I am always loosing my glasses and don't even want to tally up my yearly budget in glasses. Usually, the more expensive such as my Chanel, Cartier, Gucci and others, the shorter their life span...of course, I rarely loose the ones bought out of desperation at the corner drugstore.

LATENESS... I always try to get to my appointments on time, as I believe that it is the respectful thing to do, however, commuting to New York everyday, I am at the mercy of trains, traffic, subways and hate starting my day being stressed out for being late. On the other hand, I get very annoyed when clients, vendors, request really early appointment and show up late without a care. it really messes up the day.

FRIED FOOD... the smell of fried food sends me running. The other day, I actually was enjoying a sunny moment on a bench in the city...being early for an appointment. To my dismay, the local cart was selling some revolting smelling fried "stuff" I did not even want to know what was being fried, some poor creature, no doubt.

WAKING TO MAY HUSBAND'S EARLY MORNING POLITICAL RANTS... Needless to say my husband and I do not share the same political views, and I have to endure his early morning rantings reading the news on his Ipad. No matter how I object, wanting to keep some piece and calm before the usual storm hits,but  there is no stopping him. I swear, it is a disease, some kind of early insanity for which no cure has yet been found.

On such a positive note, I wish every member of our group a wonderful summer.
I cannot wait to read about all your summer plans, projects and vacations.



Francine




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