First: apologies for my weird little post below. I was trying to show some French friends T. had over for dinner how Blogger worked. The dinner was a good time, although I got horribly tired halfway into it and had to end my night early. I made several massive (and very funny to them) errors in my French during the course of dinner, including thinking “Merdi” was a day of the week, and, when someone asked me if my camera was “numeric,” I heard “Amerique” and answered “Non, est Japonaise!” Doi.

I hope I was able to rectify the situation when I closed the night by saying “Maintnent, mes amis, je suis fatigue. Alors, je suis dormi, mai je reve de vous.” (Now, my friends, I am tired. So, I sleep, but I dream of you all.” Then I courtsied and collapsed into bed where I was only half awoken when new friends came in to give me “bisou” (kisses) and wish me ‘appy beersdahee in their cute accents.

Ok, next thing next: here are the photos from yesterday. I don’t have time to make them small, but they’re all from the cemetery, which was an amazing study of the permanence of death, and the impermanence of even stone. Naturally, a necrophobe like myself was fascinated and titillated by the whole experience. There were the mourners at Jim Morrison’s grave and the kiss marks at Oscar Wilde’s (complete with a sign that said “Please do not deface the memorial.” Pah. Whatever! Kissing is not defacing!). The map for the cemetery hinted at historical rumors of “necrophiliac activities and black sermons,” which naturally only made the visit all the more interesting.

And now, most importantly, it’s my birthday. My mother, seemingly the one member of my family to remember the 9 hour time difference (yes, Andreas is considered part of the family), sent me this very sweet email that almost made me cry:

It’s not yet your birthday here on Bainbridge, but it is in France, so I thought I shoot off a quickie love note saying HAVE A GREAT DAY!! I just looked at your blog and saw all the photos and really like the ones of the Gardens that you loved so much too. Seems like you are having a splendid time there. Glad to see the jet lag has mostly passed and you are enjoying the sites.

Gosh, 27 years ago this evening my water broke and we walked around the block, picked dogwood blooms, and knew something big was about to happen. Then all night long my body did the work of telling you that you had outgrown the womb. By noon, I was holding a big fat baby in my arms. And now that baby is 27 and a fabulous young woman of whom I am SOOO PROUD!!!

Much love,
Mom

Sniff sniff.