April in Paris

I am celebrating the end of March with a spring cold.  I went in to say good morning to my boss first thing on Monday morning and she had a dreadful cough.  About an hour later, I started feeling a tickle in my throat. Coincidence? Maybe.  Or maybe we're both dealing with spring allergies.  Either way, I'm not feeling a hundred percent today, coughing and sneezing hard enough to startle the kittens.  Nevertheless, I am heartened by the knowledge that spring is getting closer every day.  I saw my first robin yesterday.  Yet I'm dreaming of Paris this week.  And France.

I'm watching a movie called "A Good Year" starring Russell Crowe (with a horribly bad haircut).  The movie is based on the book by the same name, written by Peter Mayle, who also wrote "A Year in Provence".  Russell's character inherits a villa in France (a little run down but delightfully decorated with "the patina of years gone by") from an uncle, played by Albert Finney (still looking a bit like Churchill, whom he played so well in "The Gathering Storm" 4 years before this movie).  I am quite enjoying the scenery, both the street scenes in London and the country roads as he drives through France, as well as the shots of the grounds of the chateau and the vineyard.  (Although there was just a scene with a scorpion crawling across his floor, I'm so glad I didn't see one of those when I was in the south of France last fall!!)

While I watch, I'm catching up with my friend Kate McKinnon.  She is in Paris at this very moment in time, the lucky girl.  She's blogging about it here.  Okay, her latest entry is about a gathering of phenomenal seed beaders but the rest are about her adventures on the streets of Paris.

Photo by Kate McKinnon

You can see many more of Kate's photos on her Facebook page, by clicking here.

Mary Ann Moss, whom I've never met but whose blog I read faithfully, just got back from two weeks in Paris.  You can read about her adventures here.

Once you finish reading, you may find yourself dreaming of April in Paris.  But while I'm watching this movie, it's the south of France stirring my memory.