What Happened to the Day 12-21-25

Happy Solstice! The days start lengthening again tomorrow. As far as today goes we woke up to rain and then we had clouds and rain, and then we had more rain. Did I mention rain? It was a laundry day as well. We have a laundry drying rack that we can use for our clothes. But we also have a heated towel rack in the bathroom so that anything that needs faster drying gets put on the rack. On the bright side Deb woke up without pain in her hip and that made it a positive day for her no matter what. 

As we contemplated lunch it was apparent that we were short on groceries (again) so I had to make a short run to pick up bread for tomorrow and a few other things.  I did find really nice cherries and dates at our local primeur so a few came home with me. We’re contemplating what we’ll have for dinner on the 25th, Christmas is a big family day in France so almost nothing will be open. We’ll have do do our shopping in the next day or so. We’re thinking perhaps something special from the butcher, maybe duck maybe a nice steak, we’ll have to see when we get there. Today we used another part of the chicken from a couple days ago and had open faced sandwiches along with celeri remoulade. Also nice olives, cherries, and dates on the side. Then for dessert I brought home a couple eclairs, one coffee and one chocolate. Deb says there have been 

requests for more dessert pics so here are the eclairs. For our wine we finished off the nice Chablis that accompanied our first chicken dinner. All in all it was a satisfying lunch even if much later than intended, almost Spanish you might say. 

A different topic but interesting. As we’ve been going around and visiting the various churches and monasteries and this being the Christmas season they have been featuring crèches. And thus far none of the manger scenes have actually had a baby Jesus on display. Now you’ll likely laugh but we only figured it out that before Christmas there is no baby Jesus. I’m betting that come Christmas Day there will be a baby in the mangers. So basic, but so slow on our part.  

Deb would like to add comments today so I yield the keyboard to her. 

Greetings, folks, on this Shortest Day. We really feel the northern latitudes here. The daylight is so much less than in Sevilla. I well remember the short dark days like this when I was working in England. But we didn’t come to Paris for outdoor sports. There is so much to do here that we’re not suffering  for lack of entertainment. On the contrary - our problem is whittling down our to-do list.

One small sad note for us: one of our favorite Paris restaurants is no more. I went looking for its hours, only to find that it is Definitivement Ferme! We were looking forward to its superlative seafood and in particular, its seafood soup, a meal in itself. But, there is is. We’ just have to enjoy our memories of many delicious meals there and the friendly welcoming staff, and the many interesting conversations we had there.

Speaking of interesting conversations, the one Warren mentioned a couple of days ago sticks in my mind. Both of the guys were very interesting, and the hour we spent talking to them just flew by. (It’s so great that you never feel rushed to abandon your table in a European restaurant.) The eighty year old had worked for a branch of Honeywell at one time so we had reminiscences of the company to share. And he is a watch

collector/dealer and we had fun talking about that. The chase, the thrill of the hunt. All collectors share it. The younger guy is an Army and War correspondent for the French news outlet I follow. He and I have been to a lot of similar military installations and got to trade war stories; real war stories on his part, anecdotes on mine. His insights on the current military situation in Europe were fascinating, if grim.

The conversation with these guys got me thinking about why Warren and I study foreign languages. I’d read some articles recently about foreign language study helping to prevent dementia. Whether or not that is true, although it would be lovely if it were, it’s not the reason I keep beating my poor brain to learn another language, however rudimentarily. The study is simply to make possible the conversations like to one we just had. The two guys were fumbling with their English and we were bumbling along with our French but in the end, we all got ideas and questions across, and it was meaningful to us all. Even just a few words, a few phrases are enough to get a well-meaning exchange going, and for me that might be my biggest delight in travel. Right next to a seeing a Vermeer and/or quaffing a Kir Royal.

Here’s to days getting longer and brighter, minute by minute, day by day. Cheers, Deb