This is a sisterhood circle that I love going every first Wednesday of each month.

A little sample of what is Dance Trance… I loved it again (it was also my first contradance weekend) and got a new nickname from it: “Sparkle”… SOOOOO sweet!!!….

Click here!

smiles to you all!

love

Pri

Well, it’s so satisfying to see the flowers you planted last year coming back more beautiful and stronger, specially for me, a Brazilian who thinks everything looks like dead in the winter!

Check out our plants! Isn’t our garden beautiful?

Also, if you go here and look for name: Borges – you can find the photo I submitted to NYTimes a Moment in Time. (also in the end of the Garden album)

Garden in 2010

I bought these 2 pots of columbines this week, hoping to plant them in the back yard soon, by our beautiful rock wall.

Oh, well…. I couldn’t resist…. Here are some photos I took today during lunch time.

Note the different focuses in what I am calling my first series of “Different Perspectives”.

Oh, the beauty of nature – so simple – so perfect.

Spring in different perspectives

During the flight to Paris, I read an excerpt of a biographic book in a magazine called Parabola (this edition the theme was love). I was then reminded of the fascinating story of Hellen Keller, which I had heard in the week before I came to study in USA.

From Paris IV

The coincidence is that the same book was there, in Paris, in my friend’s book shelf, and I decided to read it during this vacation week (lots of metro & train time).
What a delight to read this story of this blind and deaf girl growing up. She was so determined and full of love for life that she learned how to read as well as speak, went to college and mastered not only English but German and French!

She used the Braille method, spelling words on her hands as well as reading lips ( touching them)
Her amazingly vivid descriptions are really touching, and I let myself absorb her ways to take in the world, through her touch, smell and sensibility.

“I also enjoy canoeing, and I suppose you will smile when I say that I especially like it on moonlight nights. I cannot, it is true, see the moon climb up the sky behind the pines and steal softly across the heavens, making a shiny path for us to follow; but I know she is there, as I lie back among the pillows and put my hand in the water, I fancy that I feel the shimmer of her garments as she passes.”
“next to a leisure walk, I enjoy a ‘spin’ on my tandem bicycle. it is splendid to feel the wind blowing in my face and the springy motion of my iron steed. the rapid rush through the air. gives me a delicious sense of strength and buoyancy, and the exercise makes my pulses dance and my heart sing.”
“I lived myself into all things. I was never still a moment; my life was as full of motion as those little insects that crowd a whole existence into one brief day”.
“When a rainy day keeps me indoors, I amuse myself after the manner of other girls. I like to knit and crochet; or perhaps I play a game or two of checkers or chess with a friend. I have a special board on which I play these games.”
and, to finish there quotations, nothing more adequate than this part, since I went to museums and especially enjoyed the marble sculptures of great Greek, French and Italian masters:
“museums and art stores are also sources of pleasure and inspiration. Doubtless it will seem strange to many that the hand unaided by sight can feel action, sentiment, beauty in the cold marble; and yet it is true that I derive genuine pleasure from touching great works of art. I can feel in faces of gods and heroes hate, courage, and love, just as I can detect them in living faces I am permitted to touch. My soul delights in the repose and gracious curves of Venus;”

I love when a book inspires more love for life.

Thursday I woke up feeling much better, although not yet eating normally, and we went to the Jardin des plants and shopped for new jeans for me. We also went to the Jardin du Luxembourg, which I especially loved. There was a type of bell-organ being played that was pretty curious to listen to. we also went to the restaurant there at the park and I got a dessert for meal: strawberry-ginger soup with a lemon sorbet… so delicious and healthy!! after that, we went to this play that Doug, Eric’s advisor, strongly suggested called La Ballade de Simone, about the philosopher and feminist Simone de Beauvoir. Despite not understanding almost any French, it was well done and moving. the 2 actresses were great also as musicians (accordion and singing).

Friday was my day to be by my self, while Eric met another friend and worked a little more in his Doctorate thesis. I tried to use the bicycles that have in Paris that you rent and return it in another station, like the zip- cars in NUS, but neither mine of Eric’s credit cards worked… Anyway, I went to the museum L’Orangerie, where they have a selection of 6 of Monet masterpieces: the Waterlillies were huge and long curved paints that I enjoyed a lot! I also was very impressed with the variety of paintings in the museum collection, part of a famous merchant of the beginning mid-century. After seeing the impressionist paintings, especially Renoir and one Picasso, I regretted not having bought the combined museum pass with Musee d’Orsay. Anyway, the plan was to do contrasting museums in the same day, so I went to the , which I did not enjoy as much, although I also like modern & contemporary art. I was mostly happy to see a little more of Picasso, Kandinsky, etc.
Unfortunately my mood was not great and I wished I stayed with the beautiful and peaceful impressionist paintings…. Other things also contributed for a less exciting and peaceful day, such as: still unsure and afraid of eating; getting lost some times in the museums neighborhoods; spending long time inside the metro going from a place to another; pouring rain while I was trying to find another Brazilian restaurant in Montmatre (the 3 umbrellas Eric had, were, of course, left at his house); the restaurant didn’t exist anymore; I was hungry and wet….

In the evening things turned out to be better. We met Cinthia (Brazilian who was studying in Bton and now is doing a doctorate in Paris) and her friend Marcelo (who brought a French friend – Marie). It was very fun to speak some Portuguese, hear her stories, and find a surprisingly beautiful garden and courtyard hidden inside the Palais Royal, through this narrow alley!
I finally got a Croque Monsier (without the ham and with a tomato) which ensured I wasn’t getting poisoned again…
Saturday was particularly fun and relaxing. Eric and I went to the Chateau de Fontainebleu, the royal palace for 800 years, favorite by the kings and queens in hunting season. I delighted my self seeing the decoration and the beautiful ceilings, and felt great comparing that moment to the one 9 years ago when I barely walked in the sumptuous Versailles Palace with my appendicitis pain, while this time I was healing, and relieved by not having to go to the hospital!
the gardens were nice (despite half of then closed…. in a Saturday…. can you believe these French weirdos?) although pouring rain again!
We had great food and some very beautiful and delicious sweets. So, I finally got to try some of the very attractive patisserie wonders, only found in France.
Now, at the plane I write this, with a smile in my lips. it was a great time but I am sooooooooo happy to go back home, to my beautiful and peaceful Bloomington, to my home-sweet-home and to my dear David.

Paris IV

Adeus, Paris!

After almost a whole day at home, recovering, we decided to go to the Louvre, since Wednesdays it has a late closure (10pm). We got there right around 6pm, and walked a lot! I was feeling much better and specially when I aw all the exciting sculptures and paintings, I basically forgot I was sick! I wasn’t THAT impressed with the infamous Mona Lisa, but liked a lot to see other not so famous sculptures, but what really impressed me was the Egypcian collection. I was realy moved to get inside the Chapel of the Tomb de Akhethotep.

Fascinating!

On Thursday we woke up early to go play the pian in the pian shop. It was very fun! (one of our favorite activities together is play and sing different types/styles of songs). It was a success! Then went to the Jardin the Plantes, which was ok, but there was a very interesting Labirinth, where we could rest and let the sun warm us up! Afer it we went jeans sopping! We both ended up buying nice jeans. Then, Jardin the Luxembourg, which was much more inviting  to me than the other one. There I felt like eating something, and got a very nice strawberry-ginger soup with lemon sorbet. It was delicious!!! We then went to the play “La ballade de Simone”, which i could tell the actresses were really good, but unfortunately I coulnd’t understand almost anything, despite my great effort (before falling asleep…)

AFter that I was still energtic somehow and wanted to walk to downtown, and we found the Shakespeare & Co book shop by chance. It was very nice, and there was a piano there, which Eric played, and we found out they also had a “French-English Table” on Thursdays. I finnally got my so desired hot chocolate afterwards, and then it was time to go ot bed.

Comment on photos come later. But they are here:

Paris III

On Sunday we went to the Musee Rodin. It was very nice, and I loved t the see the originals of one of my favorite sculptures – “The hand of God”. Photos of this day and next days are here:

Paris II

We also went to the famous Moulin Rouge. I LOVED the amazing costumes, and the specialty shows: an acrobat couple, a ventriloquist, a woman swimming with snakes… It was very FUN! But I was really impressed by the quality of the costumes.

Hi, this is Eric! Today we started with breakfast followed by a combination walk/jog in the Bois de Vincennes and the Château de Vincennes (Pri: it’s a castle in a park!). After a while I started jogging and Pri continued walking. I did my traditional run-around-the-castle but was surprised to see Pri inside the castle courtyard, where I had never been because I thought you had to pay an entrance fee. (*Pri: poor Eric!)

After that we headed to a Brazilian restaurant Pri picked out called Gabriela, where I had the traditional feijoada, Pri ate pastel and we tried some Brazilian beer (Bohemia and Brahma). For desert, quindim and pastel com goiabada (excelente!) The food was great and the walls were covered with Brazil-themed collages and other decorations that made Pri understandably homesick.

The restaurant was in the foothills of Montmartre, and we found Sacré Coeur simply by walking up the steepest streets. It was beautiful but full of loud tourists and who bothered us. We climbed the steps to Sacré Coeur, and the church was very peaceful and beautiful inside. We also climbed the tiny spiral staircase to the top of the tower for an amazing (but windy) view of Paris!

Next we were amazed to see a bunch of people running up the hill. No, it wasn’t a bunch of people running from the bulls! This is France, not Spain! It was actually the end of a marathon. We walked around the square full of painters and caricature/portrait artists, and were impressed by the quality of the work. (*Pri: better than in Florence) Then we followed signs to a Dali exhibit and saw lots of sculptures of melting clocks and long-legs and drawer-women. A nice surprise!

Later, we saw the flower market near Notre-Dame (*Pri: I was very impressed and homesick again. There were even palm trees and cactus and lots of strange shapes and small colored flowers), and then went for ice cream behind Notre-Dame, and shopping in Le Marais in shops full of cute, tiny, colorful, interesting (*Pri: useless?) objects.

Finally, we were hungry and decided to buy a baguette and cheeses to take back home. After all, we had to experience a real French meal! (bread, wine, cheese, fruit!)

All photos  are going to be added to this same album:

Paris

Bye!