Beth Arnold

Letter From Paris: Love Letters to Oscar

Image by ecstaticist via Flickr

In Paris, like everywhere else, it is the season for new beginnings, and I am claiming them.  I am wrapping myself in 2011 as if it were a flowing velvet cape.  I imagine it a deep and dusky blue with a lining of vivid chartreuse.  That image is what I hope my coming year will be--cut with a creative edge--luxuriant and liberal, a blast of abundant color, and flowing tiers of success. 

One lesson that comes over and over again is to love ourselves.  That is the key to open our doors, and though practicing it is harder than it might seem, I believe in it.  Love is the answer.  Love is success.  Love completes us--and then expands our lives and enriches others we touch.  Love is God, and God is love.  Love is the energy that lifts us up whether one calls it God or not.

Paris is a city of love, and in the recent snow that carpeted the tiny rues and big boulevards, love still shined its light. 

Jours of Our Lives: 5) Auntie Mame

 

Illustration by Elizabeth Cannon

An ongoing series about uprooting our lives in America and moving to France. For what's happened before, see previous Jours of Our Lives entries here.

BEFORE JIM WENT for his first art lesson, he was nervous as a schoolboy.  He didn’t know about these lessons, if this was the right atelier where he should be taking class. I offered to walk him, but he was afraid he might cling to my skirt (or more likely pajama tails) like Bret used to do.  The really nice part was that he came back so pleased with himself.  He once had a dream that he was in prison, and the only time he could get out was when he was painting.  He enjoyed class, and the class enjoyed him.

Acrylic by James Morgan

 

A few days later, our favorite driver, Jacques, picked up Blair, Bret, and our friend Holly at the airport. The girls arrived for their Christmas vacation tired but peckish.  I laid out their first French feast—pâté, fromage, baguette, clouds of the most luscious chocolate meringues, and cookies.  We drank a welcoming toast of champagne, and they all went to sleep while Jim went to class and I went to work. 

Photo by Beth Arnold

Letter From Paris presents... Paris EyePhone

REAR WINDOW

By Contributing Editor Mario C. Servin, iPhone Photographer and Traveling Economist

THE ARRIVAL OF the new year is a time to reflect on the past but also to contemplate the future. This picture of the Place des Victoires in Paris is taken from a side view mirror of a car parked in the opposite direction, looking backwards but also forward.

Best Wishes for 2011!

 

iPhone photos by Mario C. Servin.