Bill and I seldom give a definitive “no” anymore when one of us poses the question “Are we doing anything tonight?” Back in Atlanta we had a bulletin board at the house where we posted a calendar so that we could see all of the upcoming events for the month. Heck, you could probably make that for the year since we always scheduled vacations to Europe at least that far in advance. We had the challenges of getting time off from work, arranging flights and specific seats on the plane, finding a holiday house/apartment in the right location with the ever-important dishwasher and washing machine, etc. Now that we live in Europe, things have changed…for the better. Continue reading “Doin’ nothin’? Nothin’ doin’!”

For over 30 years, European countries have banded together to celebrate  their heritage on the third weekend of September. In Paris this year, for example, it was possible to visit the Presidential palace of Elysée, tour the city in vintage buses last seen on the streets in 1935, peruse the outstanding art collections at the Musée d’Orsay, gaze down upon the streets below from atop the Arc de Triomphe or explore dozens of other attractions all for free. Since these “Days of European Heritage” were based on an original creation of the French Ministry of Culture, it was only fitting that Carcassonne should fully participate. Continue reading “Open house”

In elementary school, one day a week was devoted to art. Although it was not a subject at which I excelled, I still looked forward to those days because it meant that we could temporarily put aside long division, cursive writing, and vocabulary lists in favor of crayons, colored pencils, and poster paint. Bill and I had our own grown up version of Art Day last week and we didn’t even have to get messy. Continue reading “Art day”