Friday, August 27, 2010

Lady in Avignon

I wanted to visit Avignon for ten years. When I studied in Nice my teachers used all sorts of stories, songs, and rhymes to teach us French. There were the Tintin cartoons, the “Champs-Elysees” song, and many others. One of the most memorable of these was the nursery rhyme about a certain bridge in Avignon. ‘Sur le pont d’Avignon,’ it went, ‘on y danse, on y danse’. There we dance, there we dance.

Le Pont dAvignon

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Thursday, August 26, 2010

Lady in Lille

Last week I got two very exciting invitations for press trips to Europe. The first was for the Eurostar Explorer Train, which would take me to one of six cities in either Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, or France. The second was for a business class flight to Berlin to celebrate the launch of an airline’s fifth daily flight from Heathrow to Berlin Tegel Airport.

Lille Europe Train Station

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Monday, June 8, 2009

Lady in Aix

When I was 18 I spent a semester studying in Nice, France. I traveled most weekends and visited many cities in Provence—there was a trip to Eze, an afternoon in Saint Paul de Vence, and of course an outing in Antibes. I saw a lot. But when I got back to California, everyone asked me the same question: “What did you think of Aix en Provence?” Aix en Provence? Oops. Missed that one.

Building with a statue of the Virgin Mary in Aix en Provence

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