One of the things that I wanted to do while I was in Paris was to meet Claude of Blogging in Paris. We had a date to meet up on Saturday morning, meeting up at 10 am at Hotel Lutetia.
It is odd when you meet somebody whose blog you read and they read yours. You know each other's stories. Because of this I just knew that Claude and I would get along and I was right! To the casual observer, it would have looked like the meeting of old family friends (Claude even passed on a greeting from my sister Sally) or pals from university days.
Through what we've posted on our blog about our likes and dislikes, childhoods, trips to the doctor and lack of heating in the house we could get down to the business of just hanging out. Claude already knew the reason I found the hotel where we had breakfast so warm while everyone else was bundled up. This was due to the fact that I live in a house with a new boiler that hasn't been connected yet. (it is still not hooked up yet) I knew that since Claude has started blogging and taking photos to include on her blog, she now looks at Paris, her home for decades, in a new way. I love how she finds beauty in everyday things.
Claude got to learn that one of the topics I haven't yet touched upon is that I must have been a showgirl in a previous life. I'm attracted to anything that sparkles. I have a new diamante Eiffel Tower pin from this trip. She was indulgent as I stopped at any window that had jewelry in it and was quite willing to just nip into the Swarovski boutique with me so I could ask them a question. The answer to my question is that they do not give out free samples and you can't buy a single jewel to glue into a piece that has a missing gem unless you bought it there.
On Saturday I learned that Claude won't eat a croissant (they don't agree with her). This just meant more for me! Those croissant at breakfast were exquisite! I also learned that we have passing each other for ages. She has a place near Honfleur in Normandy not far from where we have been on holiday. We could have passed each other on the street because we were in Honfleur at the same time. Small world huh?
I like Claude's smiley face. We have such a similar outlook to so many things and have similar taste in things. We seemed to like the same things in shop windows. We complained about the fact there is so little good fashion for women of our size. We both agree that being pencil thin is not good. I had said that at least clothes look good on thin women. Claude wisely observed that clothes look nice on wire hangers too.
I find Claude to be intelligent, funny and warm. She smells nice too. I would love to spend more time with her. I have invited her to visit us in Scotland once we have everything finished. It will give me a chance to show her why it is so important to buy baking chocolate san sucre! I'll certainly give her plenty of warning when I am going to be in Paris again.
Claude, thank you for breakfast, showing me the Bon Marche Christmas windows, pointing me to that beautiful chocolate shop and your company.
3 comments:
Really glad you and Claude got to meet and had a enjoyable visit along with plenty of photo opts....well, except for the pissy pastry guy. SOunds like a great trip
Alan - It was great meeting Claude. She is such good company! I hope that in the fullness of time I get to meet all the bloggers I like in-real-life.
Yes, we did have a great time, didn't we? And you were lucky with the weather too. You should see what it's been like in the last two days, wind and rain, rain and wind!h
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