PARIS!

Perche, photos by Katherine Wolkof,

taken from the NY Times

Tomorrow! I still have a few minor things to take care of, like packing my suitcase full of heavy pieces of walnut display boards and stacks of catalogs. I'm not sure there'll be room for my clothes.Jim will be joining me in Paris next weekend, which I'm really excited about. Our friend from Milan will come with his girlfriend. I'm really looking forward to it because next Saturday the 6th is La Nuit Blanche, when the city is open all night and there are cultural events, film, art, dance all over town. There are institutions that are usually closed that open it's doors to the public, films projected on building walls, museums like the Louvre are open all night and the streets and cafes are overflowing with energy. Last year, my friend Coco and I had an amazing time in the courtyard of the Biblioteque Naçional listening to music and checking out art openings all over the Marais before ducking into a cafe near Bastille for the rest of the night.The show is over on the 7th and we've decided to go to Normandy the week after the show. I've been to the South of France a few times and even took a ferry to Corsica when I took my first backpacking trip through Europe when I was fresh out of college. But never to the countryside to the West of Paris.Besides, I need another vacation and a little bucolic green countryside and slow village life (and food) and possibly some coastline thrown in will inspire me to buckle down (again) for the busy holiday season. Also a little Calvados will also be nice. I think a visit to Giverny and some of the Impressionist's haunts will be amazing and it will be incredible to see the D-Day beaches, particularly after watching Ken Burn's War all week. We'll take a train to Chartres, rent a car and then visit this place, Perche, that I just found yesterday in the NY Times on-line. Looks beautiful. And I'm really excited about the food.Found this article while searching for Normandy info (and avoiding jobs like drilling holes in aforementioned walnut.)
Alex James from Blur took cooking lessons in Normandy--do we have time for that?