It is now 6 days until we will be in Paris. We hear rumors of strikes and hope that there will not be too much disruption while we are there. To us Americans, striking over a rise in retirement age from 60 to 62 seems the height of silliness, since our retirement age is now 67.
This is the culmination of a long planning process underway since February. The bags are bought. The cat sitter arranged. The clothes are getting assembled. Books are bought, after a brief unfulfilled romance with a Nook. Extra memory for the camera and a bag for the computer are on their way. Even the watch got new batteries. Two restaurants are booked (Ledoyen and Gagnaire's); a cooking class at Le Cordon Bleu; and a biking tour of Versailles. Planned sights include the Louvre, Eiffel, Catacombs, Notre Dame, walking the Marais and Monmartre neighborhoods, perhaps Moulin Rouge or Crazy Horse. It would also be fun to go to the cemetery and maybe walk the meridian line through part of Paris.
Our friend Bill piggybacks on our vacation and joins us in the apartment for 4 days. Fred's brother Claude and family join us over the weekend from Switzerland to see Paris before they move back to the States.
My husband muses whether the kittens will remember us after 10 days away. Ada will probably become a little more standoffish, at least initially. It will be interesting to see how Kelvin, the more needy of the two, responds when we get back. Pumpkin's snuffles and skin problem are worrisome and I hope the pet sitter does not overreact.
~retta
