As I said yesterday (or was it the day before?) I've been trying to do some maintenance work on my photo database before the whole thing comes crashing down like a château de cartes. It was at the beginning of the Covid 19 pandemic that I started losing control. I happened to notice the photos above, which are much older than that.I enjoyed seeing them again. They brought back good memories of many Christmases past in Paris, and memories of visits from friends who were among the very first to come to see us here in Saint-Aignan. That was back in Dec. 2004, and we had been here for less than a year at that point. The visitors were our friends Evelyn and Lewis. As I admired the photos, I realized that they weren't ones that I took, but they are some that Evelyn took in Paris that Christmas. I'm trying to remember if that was the first time I ever met E. and L. face to face. I think it was. Over the years we've enjoyed spending time and seeing the sights in Paris several times, in North Carolina, in Alabama, in the Auvergne region, and in Normandy.
Oh, that's great to see :)
ReplyDeleteHow did you and Evelyn meet, Ken?
Back in the early days of the Internet there was a forum on AOL called the Francophile forum and I think I met Ken there along with Marie who was also on a forum called Dictionary,com. There were at least twelve regulars in the virtual community, two are deceased now. I was able to meet most of them in France or the US. There was a troll on the forum and people moved on to other places such as facebook and Fodor's.
DeleteI think I was on both the Francophile forum and on Dictionary.com. I met Marie on one or both of them, and through her I met you. That was 25 or so years ago.
DeleteThe early days of the internet were interesting times. That is a great picture of the sparking Eiffel Tower - it never ceases to make me happy when I see it like that.
DeleteThat's me anonymous above.
DeleteThanks so much for these.
ReplyDeleteBettyAnn
Were you the matchmaker for E and L?
ReplyDeleteBA
No, far from it. But we all became good friends starting in 2003.
DeleteYour blog gave me a jolt this morning, Ken. I see that photo from my chair every morning, but first wondered how could that be? I think Deecember 2004 was our first visit, but we had talked on the phone before when I was visiting Marie for the first time.
ReplyDeleteI remember talking on the phone in 2003, right after Walt and I had arrive in Saint-Aignan. I had first met Marie in person in about 2001, or maybe even 1998. It's hard to remember. I don't remember if I called her or she called me in the summer of 2003, but when we talked she said here, talk to Evelyn, and she handed you her phone. You and Lewis had other plans that summer, but you and Lew came back and stayed here in 2004. I almost forgot to say that you and Lew came to Walt's and my wedding in Albany NY in 2012. We've seen each other a lot of times over the past 20 or so years considering how far we live from each other. I wish you both a very happy Christmas.
DeleteLewis and I wish you and Walt a very merry Christmas also. I wish we could travel like we used to, but we'll always have our memories, won't we? And the photos...
ReplyDelete