Planning the trip to Auvers-sur-Oise Earlier this week Brenda and I made a day trip to Auvers-sur-Oise, the burial site of Vincent Van Gogh. It was our first trip on a train outside of Paris in a couple years, and in the interim, the French national train network SNCF (Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer […]
Travel Outside Paris
Some thoughts from France on Covid Vaccination Progress
Maybe because I’m 70 years old, I jumped at the first chance I had to receive the Covid-19 vaccine. Even better, I received the version from Johnson and Johnson, not only a trusted brand for floor wax (actually that’s SC Johnson – not the same), but also a vaccine that needed only one shot. I […]
Technical Difficulties in Paris in 2020
Remember when the TV would occasionally show a screen saying that they were having technical difficulties? We had a few technical difficulties in Paris in 2020. Looking back, I have plenty of things to be thankful for. I’m not among those who suffered because of health problems or financial loss. The regulatory regime was a […]
“The Third Man” needed help from Peoria
With current restrictions in Paris on how and why we can leave our apartment, we’ve had to make adjustments in shopping routines, exercise routines, and certainly social routines. For instance, a couple times each week, my wife and I watch a movie together, sort of a date night for people in lockdown. Rather than choosing […]
Bonne année 2020!
2019 was our seventh year in France, the last year of the decade, our 30th wedding anniversary, each of our 50th high school reunions, the 50th anniversary of my swearing in at the Naval Academy, the 30th anniversary of my taking command of USS Buffalo (SSN-715), the 50th anniversary of Woodstock and the moon landing, […]
A Song of Egypt
Every morning at our hotel by the Red Sea the guy making eggs would hum a little song. It was a happy song, though I had never heard the tune. It was always the same. He was always happy, cooking eggs, humming a song of Egypt. I would never have chosen to travel to Egypt […]
