Joe.....

Yeah I know you missed me...and I know this look is as close as you can get to telling me. Nice guy. Really cool guy.

Lyon - last night

Lyon - last night, originally uploaded by lesliefedorchuk.

My last night in Lyon was so beautiful and so hard. The city is wonderful. Something to feast your eyes on in every corner of it. A wonderful combination of old, new, color, shape, texture.....

I have a lot of images to put up and talk about in the next few weeks. BUT....this was the last night - the moon was reflecting over the Rhone - with all of the illuminated buildings as well.

And I was sad to be leaving. So sad. Incredibly sad. But today I think - hmmm....I will be going back, I know. The moon, the rivers, the city, the friends....they will all be there when I come back.

Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?


~ Mary Oliver ~

An image of the ceiling of the Basilica of Fourviere in Lyon. Neobyzantine guilding ALL over the inside of it. On top of a hill - it gives you a view of the city and surrounding areas that is like no other. I have a little video of that - and will get it up here as soon as I can.

Radiohead Nude Bercy Paris June 2008

btw....did I mention???

Lyon at Night.

This is what we do..... (well, what the American tourist does...these two do go to work, so I don't have a clue how they do it - but they do it with very little sleep). Meet in the early evening - talk, coffee, wine. Lots of laughing, trying to teach the American how to say things in French (pointless)...then a late dinner. If the weather is nice (not pouring rain - although Virg seems to think that anything that is not HOT and SUNNY is pointless) we go for a walk. Did I mention that by this time it is well after midnight?

Lyon is....magical. In a totally different way from Paris. It is calm. It has a presence - a mystical presence that I need to learn more about. It is the history, the coming together of so many things in its past. But you do feel it....walking on the silent streets at night. Looking in shop windows, moving quietly through the square, talking softly - laughing....lots of that.

I am so thrilled to be here with these two good friends. We already know each other in many ways....and so when I see something moving and burst into tears (I can hear those of you who know me laughing....) - they aren't bothered - they just wait for me to contain myself and we move on. More soon.

It is always better when you have a friend to point out things that you wouldn't see otherwise, take you to places that are more fun with someone else....or just point out when you are about to make a raging cultural blunder.....(who knew that you would never give peonies as a gift to a French person because that is a flower that goes on a gravesite?).

Spent the day being tourists....walking around icons and small streets...drinking and laughing with Virgil and his friends. We are about to head for the train station for our trip to Lyon. I hate to leave Paris....it is truly one of the most intriguing places I have ever been.

Paris seems to hold unlimited beauty. Now that I have found my bearings and have an adventure on the metro everyday, I can see the scope of the history and diversity within the city. Yesterday I bought a bunch of peonies at a "magnifique" shop that was a work of art in and of itself - near the Ecole des Beux Arts.... I was missing my garden, and walking by the school - seeing students inside the gates - carving and drawing - just heightened the feeling.

The candles were burning in St. Germain des Pres. I find myself going into everyone of these cathedrals....they are incredible. They are also cool (it has been hot and muggy) and a quiet place to take out the map and figure out where I am. This particular one is / was connected to a once enormous Benedictine monastery. It has the tomb of Rene Descartes. These candles, always lit, are very very moving to me.

At the end of the day - I am back to my neighborhood...I climb the streets up and up and then the large stone staircase to my apartment building. At the bottom of the hill, the neighborhood is full of African immigrants...the hair shops and textiles and smells of food cooking are wonderful. Everyone out on the streets...everything is a feast for the eyes.

The switch from the west coast...to Paris

It took me a while to realize that part of what I was experiencing were not only the differences between Paris and County Clare. It was the difference between a quiet rural village - with the sound of the sea and the presence of the clouds over the limestone hills - and a HUGE urban area full of people and tourists...where I am on my own for now and don't speak the language.

Most of the things that have happened to me have been comical. Like the ride from the airport - that involved a forty minute traffic jam. No lanes of traffic (that I could see) ....we just forgo those...and everyone laying on the horn and screaming at one another. Did I mention my taxi driver wore a suit (very stunning) but we were unable to speak to each other - even a word. I handed him my map and he delivered me to...well...it was the top of a hill....but the bottom of a very large, very old, pedestrian stone staircase. Me and my 700 pound suitcase. Ahhhh, but that, is another story. Au revoir.

, originally uploaded by lesliefedorchuk.

, originally uploaded by lesliefedorchuk.

, originally uploaded by lesliefedorchuk.

, originally uploaded by lesliefedorchuk.

, originally uploaded by lesliefedorchuk.

So .... we are (sadly) into our final week. Research being completed, projects being pulled together. An edition of 20 books will be due in mid-August - but the completed mock up is due on Thursday, as is a facsimile "journal" of some kind.

It is wonderful to watch the ideas and the experience come onto the page and the book form.