Pause for Purpose

Writing in Paris

When we traveled to France in October, I arrived a little early so that I could spend some time in Paris and take the opportunity to write about what I experienced. I spent my days alternating between being a tourist - trying to see as many sights as I could, ...

Le Pause Cafe

The Fauvists in Collioure

"Working before a soul-stirring landscape, all I thought of was making my colors sing, without paying heed to rules and regulations." - Henri Matisse Today, you can visit the small village of Collioure on the Mediterranean coast of France and see how Matisse and his friend Andre Derain interpreted the inspiring ...

Mystery in Limoux

I went for a walk on my first morning in Limoux, looking for the train station and a good cup of coffee. I came upon this wall, covered with peeling posters and wondered what it was all about. It looked political, judging by all the French flags, and I recognized the date ...

Chuck Yeager sighting in Toulouse

By chance, Chuck Yeager happened to be staying in our hotel in Toulouse. He was in town as a guest of Airbus, the huge European aircraft manufacturer, which is located in Toulouse. Yeager is famous as a fighter pilot in World War II and as a pre-NASA ...

Impressionist Paintings and Squeaky Shoes

The D’orsay museum was built inside what used to be a Paris train station and is itself a stunning structure, even aside from the art inside. The vertical space is enormous and the arched ceiling with panes of glass supported by iron, allows an ethereal light to fill ...

Found in a guest book in Paris

Wow! Paris! I love being here. It was great! I love the architecture here. I got a very pretty bracelet and necklace. The Eiffel Tower was huge! I liked the artist in front of the Louvre on Pont des Arts bridge. My favorite thing here though was the ...

Fear of Heights on the Eiffel Tower

I had never really been drawn before to go the top of the Eiffel Tower. Maybe it was because of my fear of heights, maybe because it was thronged with tourists, or perhaps just not wanting to pay the steep admission price. Not long before I came here, my writer friend ...

I gave away my Obama button today

I was walking down a street in Paris - I just had to find a certain hotel where a famous writer had spent his last days, when I heard someone calling out a sound I didn't recognize - O bam AH! O bam AH! Finally, I realized that someone was ...

Searching for Paradise

When I visited Paris in my college days, I asked my friend where I should stay. He recommended the Hotel Paradis on a hill overlooking central Paris, just down from Montmartre. I wanted to tour Montmartre, made famous by artists of years back, like Toulouse-Lautrec, Van Gough and ...