Bonne Année 2019

Happy New Year! 2018 ended for Brenda and me at an all-French party with friends and friends of friends in their home south of Paris. We returned to our apartment at about 4am this morning. Cafés and bars in our neighborhood were still going strong and there was lots of traffic. Über was charging surge prices. It’s sad to think that another Christmas season has passed so quickly.

Without trying to add too much detail, I can say that our 2018 was another year of traveling abroad and back to the US, meeting friends here in Paris, and taking advantage of some of the cultural opportunities that come our way in this part of the world.

Just to name of few of the people who visited (I know I’ll miss some), Barb Maxey from Poulsbo stayed with us over Christmas and New Years 2018. Martha Pendergast (also from Washington) stayed with us in March. Patti and Bill Wilson (Washington) visited us in April. Cami Gurney (Washington) stayed with us in May. Dianne Rodway and John Becker (Portland) visited us in September. Kelly and Linda Lunn from Portugal stayed with us in October. Plus we’ve had a host of others whom we’ve met for dinner or at our apartment: MaryLou and Paul Vibrans, Brian Dunhill, PK McLean, Rick Anderson and Louise Rosenbaum, Pam Perry and Jane, Nancy Whitaker, Chad Zinda and partner Felix, Ward Fuentes, Hermie and Virgil Valdez.

We traveled quite a bit. Brenda went back to Spokane to see her mom in February, May, and September, and I was able to join her in May, when we all competed in the Bloomsday 12km road race. Though Brenda and I finished out of the money, her mom placed 3rd in her age group for the second year in a row. On the same visit to Spokane I was able to pay off my outstanding debt for the 2017 Army-Navy Game to Army veteran Gary Carlson. We had been haggling over payment terms, but I was finally able to satisfy him by personally presenting a $50 bill. Unfortunately, Gary passed away in June, which was a very sad occasion. Though I would have lost the bet again this year, I very much miss the banter we had regarding the Army versus the Navy.

We spent nearly three weeks in Thailand with our French friends Cat and Jacques. We visited the beach areas of Ao Nang, Ko Lanta, Ko Phi Phi (with its breathtaking beach), and Phuket, with the unbelievable Songkran celebration of the Thai New Year at Patong Beach. Thousands celebrate the New Year by shooting each other with giant squirt guns or dousing each other with buckets of water. We returned from dinner soaked to the skin. We also spent several days in Bangkok, which was spectacular.

In July we went to Brussels, where our financial advisor Brian Dunhill invited us to celebrate Ommegang with the American Club of Brussels. The evening featured a wonderful dinner followed by a traditional pageant that ends with guys on stilts fighting to topple each other in the town square. Also in July we were in Normandy with Cat and Jacques, and later a week in Nice at the apartment of friend and Paris real estate expert Adrian Leeds. In September we spent a few days in Amsterdam with Poulsbo friends Wally and Wendy Hampton, and then later in September met our Australian friends Dean and Alison Fankhauser in Split, Croatia, prior to their big bike trip along the Dalmatian Coast.

In our spare time there were concerts, art galleries, and local events here in Paris. I went to the top of the Eiffel Tower for the first time. Just to mention a couple of the less-well-known events we attended, there was a stunning multi media presentation of the artwork of Gustav Klimt (and others) at Atelier des Lumières, projecting an hour of ever changing artwork on all walls and the floor choreographed to beautiful music. Attendees were immersed and wandering around in the art. We also went on a street art tour in the 13th Arrondissement, where our passionate presenter spent more than 2 hours enlightening us about the fundamentals and the motivations of the artists, and new involvement of the Paris government in promoting this form of artistic expression.

There were the usual ups and downs in daily life. In late January there was historic flooding and high water on the river Seine that closed my running route by the river for two months. In early February there was a historic snow storm. There were the Giles Jaunes (yellow jackets) riots on the streets of Paris over the past month. These were very disruptive but also occurred at specific well advertised locations, so the overall effect was much less dangerous than it appeared from the TV coverage.

I fell while running one time and hit my head on the pavement, causing a nice bruise. Brenda broke her hand in a fall while running, but she didn’t know it for a month. Now we tell each other « pick up your feet » before each run. I finished reading Les Misérables in French. I joined a monthly poker game. We went to two wine tasting events, where we learned there is a wide variation in how people taste wine, and that there is no reason to believe the point score of experts or the high prices of big name wineries as indicators of what wine would be best for you. Often in a blind taste test, a lower priced wine may be very competitive. So trust yourself.

The year ended with another wonderful Christmas Eve with Cat and Jacques and family. I spent a long time looking over with Cat’s father his cruise book from his time in the French Navy in the late 1940’s. My French is improving (but still has a long way to go). We also hosted our friend Barbara Hoehfeld (from Frankfurt) and her daughters Pascale (from Paris) and Ingrid (from Israel) and other family members on December 26th for a buffet lunch. Brenda created a beautiful mannequin Christmas tree, and we strung lights on the fireplace mantels and windows.

So…Bonne Année! We’re thankful for another great year here. All the lights are on for a final celebration. Go Huskies in tonight’s Rose Bowl. We wish you all a happy and healthy New Year. Bisous, Hugh Nelson and Brenda Prowse