A and me, glamour incarnate on the Champs-Elysées. I met A and her then-fiancé P when we joined the American Church in Paris in 2002. A is my best friend here, so she's at the very top of the list of what I'll miss the very most.
EJ's fabulous 40th birthday cake at the Parc des Buttes Chaumont. EJ went to high school with my best friend in DC, and he and his wife Isabelle took me under their wings shortly after I arrived in Paris. How not to love a chef who makes birthday cakes with 2 kg of chocolate and 3 kg of butter?!
K and S and me: Three Americans who came to Paris in 2002, working for nGo, now on three different but incredible paths in the jungle of international development.
Friends from the Office, outside our favorite "greasy spoon" diner. In Paris, "greasy spoon" diners serve amazing salads with foie gras.
"I" in her cute new apartment. Don't tell her you saw this--I promised I wouldn't post it! (Sometimes, I lie.) She and I met through our professional Helping People connections, and then she joined G's book club (see below), and now she works at nGo. Small world!
YESTERDAY'S PARTY
P and A had a very cute theme of "Where She's From/Where She Will Be From" for my going-away party yesterday, complete with a half-French (bottom of this pic) and half-American (top of the pic) buffet table!
Me, J, M, and Isabelle
Hosts A and P and their boys (with Baby J sporting a "J'ai un super papa" t-shirt for Father's Day).
I met M during my very first week in Paris at a "Bloom Where You Work" seminar, about how to survive as Americans in the French workplace, and our friendship blossomed right away.
Me with B and G and their babies. G and I met through a mutual friend, and I joined her book club, and then she met my friend EJ through a different friend. . . . It's quite a tangled web I leave behind in Paris!They're all talking about following up my going-away party with a "went-away" party, which I'm really hoping isn't actually a "thank God she's gone!" party.
As Isabelle wrote today, I'm leaving Paris la mort dans l'âme ("death in the soul"), a French expression which I love because I think it's a perfect image for what it means: something heart-breaking, that it kills you to do.
It is truly a magical thing to have two countries where your heart is at home, but the downside is that no matter where you are, you always feel like you've left a chunk of your heart somewhere else. I'm going to leave the French chunk of my heart in the safe-keeping of some very wonderful friends, whom I will miss very much.
3 comments:
You were born to blog! xoxox --A
Now there's a bumper sticker waiting to happen!
By the way, EJ was very honored to make it on your list. Though I suspect it was his cake you were really featuring! It was excellent and EJ has never made it again the exact same way.
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