Escaping the Empty Nest

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Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep

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In Case You Missed It:

Angles Unawares

I went to the Paris Préfecture de Police this week with Kid 3 and Mr. Taquet, the Frenchman we hired to help us with tricky French visa bureaucracy. It was the third time we had been to that office trying to get one little stamp in my son’s passport, and I was going to write a funny blog post about it. The absurdity of the French legal system is...(read more)

How Harry Potter Helped Me Get My Reading Groove Back

It was a hard year, and I lost my reading groove. Usually, reading is a constant in my life. I read on the subway, in my green armchair, in the kitchen waiting for pasta to get to al dente, in bed, in waiting rooms. I devour novels and nonfiction books on social issues...(read more)

If You’re Going to Greece, Go to Crete

Crete is one of the most beautiful places I’ve been to during my travels. The people are nice, the climate is sunny, the food is delicious, and there’s lots to see and do. Let’s get started. How to get to Crete? Fly. You can also take a ferry from several places, but we decided to fly because...(read more)

My Husband is (Probably) on the Autism Spectrum

For years, I wondered if my husband Sam were a spy. You know, like in those movies where a spy has to marry a regular person to help build their cover story. True Lies, for example. Sam did many things right, such as proposing, marrying me, fathering our children, and...(read more)

Three Days in Athens (or Four)

I love Greece. The food is delicious, the people are nice, there’s enough written and spoken English that you can get around, and it’s generally a relaxed and sunny place. However, Greece has had some economic problems the past few years, and Athens is not as spiffy as Paris or Rome. The sidewalks are in bad shape and the residential...(read more)

Someone You Love is Gay

It’s bound to happen. Some conservative Christians are going to find out that someone they love is gay. (By the way, I can’t answer the world’s tough questions on my little travel and lifestyle blog. All I can do is ask my readers to consider their own viewpoint and think about how you will react when your loved one wants to discuss this hot topic with you.)(Let...(read more)

Corfu: Sadder but Wiser

You’ve seen The Music Man, right? Remember when Buddy Hackett tried to get Robert Preston to date the Sunday school teacher? Robert Preston says no, thanks, because he doesn’t want a blushing breathless baby doll, he wants a more adult romance. That’s Corfu--sadder but wiser. Corfu, like a lot of Greece, has been ruled by the Romans, the Byzantines...(read more)

Greece is Like Aunt Zelda

You know that aunt, the one who didn’t quite conform to the family ideals? When all her siblings went to college, got jobs, got married, and had kids, she traveled and worked vague jobs in the service industry or took photos for a magazine or taught ESL and had boyfriends named Pascal and Xenos. She went skiing in Chile. She could hold her liquor...(read more)

Date Night Just Got Better

Sinfonietta Paris is a Paris chamber music organization that sponsors a series called Music by the Glass. It features intimate concerts in lovely concert halls and private homes throughout the city. The concerts last about one hour so you won’t be overwhelmed, and after the concert there are wine and snacks, included in the ticket price. You can...(read more)

I'm the Mentor Mom

Pictured: Paris Mom of Preschoolers on the town with dashing French tour guide and a few grandmothers. When we moved to Paris last year and joined a new church, I knew I needed to get involved. I’m an introvert, and if I don’t join something I’ll just slink in and out on Sundays and never meet anybody. Also I wanted to help out. I also knew the...(read more)

Nice Will Get A Second Chance

Because Paris gave us three solid months of gray skies with alternating rain and snow, we headed south during Kid 3’s winter break. The South of France is warm and sunny, as everybody knows. When I booked the train tickets, weather reports said Nice would be about ten degrees celsius warmer than Paris, so that seemed like a reasonable place to...(read more)

Codependent No More! Your Move, Paris

I was so proud of myself. I had figured out how to live in Paris and be treated humanely, talking to the locals and getting pretty good customer service. French classes were going well. Clerks and waiters had begun addressing me in French instead of English, which means I no longer look like a tourist, and I blended in with the other Parisien ladies...(read more)

I'm Yvonne, and this is my blog.
The kids are leaving, I’m retired, and I’ve got miles to go before I sleep. If you are as perplexed and excited as I am about the second half of your life, come eat, travel, and figure it out with me.