Jan 84 min read

Cassis and Paris

Katharine and I in Cassis

Not long after the woolly mammoth roamed the earth, I had a job that had me doing a lot of interview screening. In the summer when most of my colleagues were at Tanglewood, I tended to relax my already low standards. For this particular interview, I turned my empty office trash can upside down and put my flip flopped feet up on it before beginning a chat with a tall blonde who had applied for an Executive Assistant opening. She had good experience, was clearly smart, way more professional than I, and ended up getting the job. Not long after, she admired my new black suede shoes, advising me to buy waterproofing spray, which I never did. She probably finds it funny now, that she gave advice like that, knowing I'd never follow through on something like that. But in my mind, that conversation was the beginning of a friendship we've nurtured over so years and years as we seem to have instantly morphed from single girls looking for trouble to people who need help putting their carry-ons in the overhead compartment. And our friendship continues to deepen with every important life event we share. She is thoughtful, funny, creative, sure of who she is, and spontaneously generous, more than anyone I know. And she is so very dear to me.

But she's not the first person I expected to come and visit, as she tends to be pulled in different directions at home. So when she walked through the doors at Marignane, two worlds collided in a confusing and most delightful way. For the week we spent together, we could have done nothing but sit at cafés, which we certainly did for a few days. But I got a bee in my bonnet about her seeing the Mediterranean, so we hurtled off to Cassis, where my family had spent some years when I was young. It was a sunny, warm day that allowed us to sit at one of the harbor cafes for hours, jacketless, enjoying the most killer fish-related meals. I'm not sure if I was 4, 5 or 6 when my family left there, but I usually have a good memory for places based on the way the land lies. I spent a bit of time looking up in the hills, trying to envision the view I know we had, and certainly narrowed down where we lived. But I'll have to go back alone for another session to figure that out. It's little changed, still cafés the whole way around, perhaps some of the same Tabac denizens even. Little painted boats still in the harbor, the much used petanque park, the carousel,oleander bushes.

Cassis harbor

An hour most golden

Killer colors

And more colors. All the streets were paved as these.

Good smells wafting out of here

Sadly closed, it might have been New Years Day

And then we were off to Paris for a few nights. On the advice of my wonderful Maltese friend, we stayed in Saint Germain at the Hotel St. Germain. As our very nice Uber driver brought us in via all the big landmarks, I began to worry we'd be close to the Louis Vuitton store that is designed as a suitcase, along with all their global brand competition on Avenue Champs-Elysees. But he dropped us on rue du Bac across from a shop that sells only socks and near a hardware store more beautiful than any I've before seen. There was also a colorful grocery store that had polar bears dancing in the windows, quite a few chocolate shops that are always crowded, a dear little place that sells flowers, and then further afield, stores seling Louis XVI furniture, chandeliers, art deco pieces, fossils, mounted dead bugs, things made from airplane parts, remade sneakers, and oddly, many stores that had stuffed deer or moose in them. Every store was more beautifully arranged than the next. Lotta photographs, did my best to winnow them down.

Flower shop next to our hotel

Bon Marché near our hotel. First department store, beautiful displays (not evident here)

Green shoes, delicious and expensive. I'll take them all.

Buttons, buttons and more buttons

A store selling things that are plastic, near our hotel. I wish I had a need for a plastic bag storing chicken.

Colors

Love this little painting on the window

Displays that create a need

Clementine decorations. Why have I never thought of this?

Favorite stuffed deer at an outdoor furniture store

Produce store on the way up the hill to Montmartre. The fruit was polished.

Croissants on the way to Montmartre. I watched a baker making them with such precision and care.

Had it been later in the day at a bakery that was packed with locals on the hill up to Montmartre

Love this, chocolate shop

My friend sadly took ill, but it didn't stop her much, she was out and about with me for a much of the time. We stood outside Notre Dame, along with a few kajillion others, but didn't go closer because the military were standing their with their scary looking automatic weapons alarmingly close, pointing into the crowd, with safeties off.