Although this blog is mostly about our wonderful trip to France with the Globe and Mail, https://www.theglobeandmail.com I am going to start by musing about aging. As you know, I turned 80 in February, and one would think that is not so different from 79, but it is. Firstly, you have to go to a driver training program before you renew your licence. It is not easy to get an appointment and certainly not near where you live. The class is simple and a bit ludicrous, not a real test of your driving knowledge or awareness. You have to draw a clock that shows the time as 11:10 or some such, and this is easy. Obviously this is meant for cognitive reasons. Of course if I were born later, I would be using a digital clock, and couldn’t do this. At any rate, I passed and renewed my licence.

Things like travel insurance and forms for passports etc., show your new age and that is a shock. When I look in the mirror I look the same as I did at 79. In fact many acquaintances can’t believe that I am now an elderly 80. Neither can I. My closest friend is almost 20 years younger and perhaps that keeps me young. Okay, so the real difference is my body. I do feel more aches and pains, even though I do Pilates, swim three times a week or more, walk, and play golf. I am exhausted after 18 holes of golf, particularly if I am competing in some sort of tournament. I ride in a cart, but hop in and out. After golf, I do take a nap and in fact take one everyday, but I have been doing that for 60 years, usually only for 20 minutes max. I always sleep on my back and don’t move. Can’t really because Oscar is snuggled in beside. I read years ago that you won’t get wrinkles if you sleep on your back, and that seems very true. The article said nothing about my neck which I hate, but I am not going to submit to the knife. What else? My feet are a problem. Those days of standing for hours in high heels singing in concerts and operas, and walking in heels has definitely ruined them. I am still pretty vain about my footwear so try to find short sexy boots, and sandals and ignore my bunions.

my wonderful golf partner and I dressed for a Barbie tournament

As we age, I would say that it is most important to be social and to enjoy your friends and family and make an effort to do this. I love music and it has been a huge part of my life. We attend concerts and operas when we can, and I always have some music playing on the radio or Alexa. We have four Alexa’s scattered around the house here and four in Florida. I love classical music, but as the day wears on I turn to Jazz or old favourites like Etta James.  You could find Charles and I dancing in the kitchen if, ‘When a Man Loves a Woman comes on, or Georgia, or At Last. I might be found dancing by myself to songs from musicals like Crazy for You, or trying to encourage Oscar to join me. I love entertaining or being entertained at friends. I love prepping for a dinner party and the pleasure of sharing conversations and gossip. If I have a larger group I will hire help from our local restaurant., and the evening becomes even more pleasurable for me.

I think that the most salient feature of all this getting older is the realization that there may only be a good 20 years left, well that is the positive way of looking at it. I do want to have a great 100th birthday with a tiara. However, realistically there is maybe 15. And of course I want to be in good mental health. So this thought sweeps over me when I am out walking or swimming and it is a reality. And as I always say, ‘it is what it is’.

at Stratford where we love to support the shows , then a Halloween table, Charles and I waiting for guests at a special friend’s birthday..with Oscar

So back to our journey. We have loved our adventures on the Globe and Mail trips primarily because they are informative. Every day there is a meeting at 7:30am with the editor, David Walmsley, a brilliant man, and with him a chosen journalist for that session. The newspaper is printed daily ahead of Toronto by 6 hours, and we get a chance to peruse it so we can be informed about the stories. There is usually another session in the afternoon after our chosen excursions. I am often first to find a seat. I always liked being at the front of the class, and still do.

Journalists like Robert Fife, https://www.theglobeandmail.com/authors/robert-fife/Ottawa bureau chief, Robin Doolittle, https://x.com/robyndoolittle?lang=encharming and energetic young exciting reporter, David Shribman, https://www.theglobeandmail.com/authors/david-shribman/correspondent from the States, and editor and award winner. The marvellous Alexandra Posadzki, https://www.theglobeandmail.com/authors/alexandra-posadzki/who wrote the fascinating Rogers Versus Rogers https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/713400/rogers-v-rogers-by-alexandra-posadzki/book. A special guest was Lisa LaFlamme, https://chatelaine.com/living/lisa-laflamme/totally compelling, erudite, and very different from her tv persona. She is a stunning, beautiful woman, dressed fashionably, and very approachable. I liked her. Crazy CTV for getting rid of her.

The journalists aboard

Andrew Saunders, CEO and President of the Globe at the terrific news forums with various special guests.

After the morning sessions we have breakfast and head off on tours of our choice. Charles and I had done this itinerary on our first river cruise a few years ago on a different ship, https://suddenly70.ca/2018/06/22/my-first-river-cruise-part-3/so we weren’t as keen on the excursions. Our actual trip began in Paris. We arrived a day earlier than most of the other travellers, and were able to access our room in the stunning Hotel Scribe a few hours ahead of the posted check in time, and better than that, we were upgraded to one of the largest suites in the hotel, The Opera Suite, very fitting I thought, and very gorgeous, with lovely views, a large living room and wonderfully comfortable bed. We napped, then went for a walk. It was overcast, but not raining yet. We wandered, bought Charles a beautiful shirt, and then I spotted a giant of a woman with a very tiny dog in an elegant square. It was Serena Williamshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serena_Williams in spike Laboutinhttps://us.christianlouboutin.com/ca_en/ shoes watering her puppy. I spoke to her and told her I was a fan. She was gracious.

stunning square in Paris where I met Serena

one corner of the suite in the Hotel Scribe.. very deco

We headed back to the hotel for a rest in anticipation of our evening. Now I have decided I won’t do a day by day report of all that we did, but tell you about the highlights, and one of the highlights was our dinner with Laurent de Saulieu and his lovely wife, Marie- Caroline. Backing up a bit, we have known Laurent since he was eighteen years of age and came to stay with us for two summers. This was when our boys were young. Laurent was very shy probably because his English was not yet very good. He came to Canada to learn the language, but it wasn’t until I served lobsters and there were leftovers from our dinner, and we invited him to eat them, and he did with great gusto, that he lost his shyness. We nick named him poubelle, which means garbage can in English and after that the ice was broken. We all visited his home, a grand chateau in the making at that time, in the Pas de Calais, https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pas-de-CalaisFrance.

Chateau of Laurent’s family

before the fabulous dinner note the picture above our heads

Yum.. note the horse logo at top of menu

We enjoyed his wonderful parents, who are now deceased, and his siblings. A relationship developed and grew and now Laurent is himself a grand father. So a visit however brief is always important.

This time he invited us to his private club in Paris for dinner; The Jockey Clubhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jockey-Club_de_Paris. Do check out this link as the club has a long history. Laurent is an equestrian and rides to the chasse, or hunts with dogs. The club is very private and exclusive. I was advised to wear a cocktail dress, and Charles a suit with a sombre tie. So we packed those despite the fact we would never wear them again on our trip, but we did enjoy dressing up for this special occasion. The dinner was set for 8:00pm and we had a welcome reception at the hotel with all the other guests on the Globe trip before that at 6:00. It was indeed fun to greet others in our ‘outfits’. We actually clean up pretty well. Our taxi was not allowed to take us to the front door of the club as it was beside the Israeli embassy so we walked a short distance to the entrance and were greeted by the porter. We also were not allowed to walk up the stairs to our dining room, but had to take a very small elevator. Our dining room, ‘un chambre separée‘ as the song goes, was simply beautiful and elegant with horse features everywhere. Now I should explain the song that I used to sing which was about a separate dining room where a woman would invite a gentleman to join her in the private quarters of a fine restaurant. I loved singing this and if you go to the Suddenly 70.ca https://suddenly70.ca/photos-audio-files/website and click on track two, you can hear this lilting, seductive aria.

Laurent invited his son, Rémi to join us because he speaks excellent English, and Rémi was very familiar with this aria and my voice as he is a reader of this blog. So the evening started out with lots of laughs and camaraderie. Rémi, by the way is in training to be a priest, apparently a long exercise of many years. When he graduates I hope he becomes a curate in a small village as he, with his charm, and wonderful sense of humour, would be an excellent guiding member of a community. We finished greeting each other, and sat down on a small sofa in this elegant dining room and enjoyed champagne, nuts, and olives. After this cocktail moment we moved to a gorgeous dining table, and were served an exquisite dinner by three attendants in tuxedo morning coats. All very formal and delightful. And the food was excellent, the wines as well, and the conversation in much French and some English was delightful. All in all it was a memorable evening and certainly a highlight of our trip.

with Olivier at dinner outside at Nice Hotel

Speaking of highlights, we also had dinner with another summer son, Olivier, while in Nice. We have kept up with him over the years and spent many wonderful summers with his family in Cap Ferret. It was very special to have dinner with him at our charming hotel La Pérouse, in their summer garden restaurant. Olivier arrived laden with a large bag, a gift for us. It was mostly a huge tin of French olive oil and some other delicacies like tapenade, and pesto. Our conversation was in English mostly. The dinner was exceptional, however hearing about his children and his life was the best part of the evening. We did have to figure out how to get our gift back on the plane as we were already packed to leave the following morning. In my next blog I will tell about this strange trip back to Canada and also about the superb journalists who accompanied us on our travels from Lyon to Arles.

Until then,

Riki

Enjoy your summer!