LA en vie

Finis

Bailout

Sunset

Overgrown

The election is coming up and for the first time in many years, I am fully involved in the political life around me. Not an observer, not an outsider, not an expat far away-- it's more exciting than I remember.

I don't miss Paris. It's a big gray city without the mountains and ocean and wildlife I see around me here. It's morose, it's rainy, it's rude. I don't even miss Europe most of the time.

Maybe, though, if I thought I couldn't go back.... Or if I were there, now, in a cafe with a steaming expresso in front of me, on the boulevard Saint-Germain.....

I don't have much to say any more. You may have noticed. I've been gone almost two years. I'm no longer an expert on Paris or anything else.  It's time to stop writing as an expat-come-home. When I go back to Paris, I'll return to Rue Rude.

Goodbye, old friends!

Honestly, who could resist? Awww!

From Colleen to the L.A. Times. The dog's name is Booker.

Halloween is coming

And that means....

... dog costumes!

Sarah Palin's Facebook page

Los Angeles Department of Water and Power

This is the driest year since 1877 in Los Angeles. I don't remember a drop of rain the whole summer. Los Angeles is a desert, and real clouds in the sky are occasion for rejoicing. Yet the flowers are still blooming everywhere, and armies of gardeners appear at dawn in the rich parts of town.

"Don't waste that water," said C darkly as I let the water run. "It comes from 800 miles away."

Drinking

In France, it is fair to say, I never went to dinner at someone's house without being served wine. But a lot of Californians don't drink. Maybe it's all the driving you have to do here after dinner.

There is a reassuring sameness to a French meal, known to all the French, high or low-- so that any Frenchman feels comfortable in the most exquisite restaurant: first,  nuts or hors-d'oeuvres in the salon with an apéritif , then an appetizer at the table, then the main course, then salad, cheese, dessert; coffee. Then perhaps a little chocolate.

Everything bien arrosé, of course, with wine, whiskey or champagne.

The rules are off in California. So many people don't drink at all or are the designated driver. A lot of young people only touch beer. And instead of having white and red wine on hand, you have to serve several different varieties of soft drink, making sure to have diet Pepsi AND diet Coke!

The fast lunch

"Can you explain about lunchtime?" I asked the dean at the first parents' meeting.

"Well, there's no actual lunch hour, but they can usually grab a bite between classes. And of course everyone has at least one free period a day."

"How long do they have between classes?"

"Ten minutes."