tough times

for those of you still reading this, for any who ever read this at all, I will be bowing out for now. i'm starting new projects, new ways of documenting my work which I will post here when they are ready. for now, i leave you with an image of the big man bound for the big house.

love, T

la fare les oliviers

my dear sunday hosts...

...and their "petit fils" Gary

We ate such delicious food--an incredible Thai salad that I am determined to replicate and a traditional tarte of Lyon. So happy to have met this part of my family, however distant. I am so spoiled!

cote d'azur

visited cassis. hiked some cliffs and saw the calanques (of the cool underground streams). quality cousine (and tante) time.

PAGO xoxo

feels good to be in a place where landscape is so culturally important.

sante

et des oeufs dur, de les cousins de belleville

131

Going to visit Mairie Les Lilas, the area where my paternal grandmother (Ama) lived as a little girl, was a process of decoding an overwhelming montage of visual information. 131 rue de Paris, the building where her grandparents and cousin lived, still stands with a very sleek-looking McDonald's on one side, an Asian general store (aka "Mega Affaires") set back from the street where her family's bronze workshop used to be, and "Nicole Lingerie" at the base of the building. A lot has changed and I was lucky to have Francois (my excellent guide, and distant cousin) along to tell me what was old and what was new, and that there used to be a pond with fish where there is now a concrete slab.

The Mairie, with a restored front, still showed the pockmarks of WWII. Saw the church where the family was baptized, married, etc. just before it is scheduled to be demolished (a large "modern" church has been built next to it and the belltower will exist where the old church still stands). Also stopped by the cemetery to see the family tomb.

Ama's school which should look about the same as when she attended (as confirmed by Cousine Denise).

Chez les Mauvoisins, la Garenne-Colombes.