Thanksgiving.

I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual…
O how I laugh when I think of my vague indefinite riches. 
No run on my bank can drain it, for my wealth is not possession but enjoyment.
- Henry David Thoreau

Wishing you and your family much joy this Thanksgiving!

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Printable Calendar: December | Décembre 2013

I watched the wind carry away the last few leaves of the trees out front… Fall preparing its final bow before winter takes center stage. Are you ready?

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To download the December calendar, click on the link below, print and cut on the dotted line (there are two on one page). I like to use plain card stock but any paper will work. Enjoy!

Download from my file cabinet: December | Décembre 2013 (pdf: 1.6MB)

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Sharing with Sweet Shot Tuesday, Our World Tuesday, Communal Global

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Food + Wine + Friends

Wine and friends are a great blend - Ernest Hemingway

Having married into the French culture and its strict rules of formal dining, I was thrilled to find that on occasion, they enjoy an informal unfussy dining style called apéritif dînatoire. This is when snacks or finger food traditionally served during pre-dinner drinks (apéritif) become more substantial and turn the event into a light dinner. No rules, no formality, no fuss. Just a gathering of friends around good food and drinks...

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Words & Le Bon Mot

scintillant: twinkling, sparkling, glittering

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Rien n'annonce les fêtes autant que la promesse d'une rue parsemée de lumières scintillantes.

Nothing announces the holidays like the promise of a street strewn with twinkling lights.

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Sharing with Sweet Shot Tuesday, Our World Tuesday, Communal Global

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The Poetry of Life...

There is not a particle of life which does not bear poetry within it ― Gustave Flaubert

These photos were taken a couple weeks ago on the morning my family left Gers (in southwest France) headed north to Paris. That morning seems like a lifetime ago… we had a 9-hour drive ahead of us, feeling heavy-hearted after saying goodbye to my husband's aging and ailing father. Several years ago, he traded in the rain and cold of Normandy for the warm rejuvenating sunlight of the South.

Driving away felt different this time, the light more luminous...

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Art is a Basic Need

Amid the allure of Paris' famous artwork tucked inside magnificent old buildings, the grit of graffiti and street art washes over so much of the city's exterior, jockeying for position against its far more elegant and popular sights. Graffiti is unapologetically and absolutely everywhere...

After all, in one form or another we all find a way to express ourselves wherever and however we can... art is a basic need. 

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October Autumn in France

October in France wore a mixed and slowly shifting palette. Parts of the North were covered with fallen leaves in alluring shades of gold while the South was still overwhelmingly green...

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Paris...

Though I often looked for one, I finally had to admit that there could be no cure for Paris. 

- Paula McLain, The Paris Wife

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