Christmas (in Paris and out)

Greetings, Readers!

I’ve just returned to Paris in time for Christmas after being in Anitbes, the town in the South of France between Nice and Cannes where my best friend lives. The “South of France” sounds like it ought to be a warm place, but is really not in winter. My BFF and I froze our keisters off at the beginning of this past week. There might be palm trees and sunshine in Antibes, but balmy it is not in wintertime. It’s chilly.

It beats being in Paris, just for views like this one, though:

From the Old City and the Fort Carré to Cap d'Antibes - click to enlarge

Or this one:

Old Antibes, with the Alps in the background

Or this one:

Sunset at the Winter Solstice - La nuit la plus longue de l'année

Even in winter, the colors of the South — Mediterranean blues, terra cotta reds, sandstone yellows, sage greens — make me feel terrific because they uplift the spirit so! No Paris grays are to be seen anywhere.

Alas, I am back in Paris, and I am posting because it is time for me to wish you a Happy Holidays!

Yes, it is those bears again. Remember them? They are in the windows at Microlithe, the association at 59bis rue Olivier Metra, 75020. I have blogged about this window here and here in the past. Adorable, eh?

I’ve got some more Christmassy photos I’d love to share with you, so if you’d like to have a look, keep on reading.

I Lied…

… when I said just a week ago I would not blog again until the end of NaNoWriMo.

It was in part because I took some cool photos that were begging me to share them with you, and also because of some wonderful readers whose kind words have inspired me to be ME again here in the blog, and carry on the way that I used to here at AAP, especially as I did a couple of years ago when I wrote something like 60K words here for NaNoWriMo. Call me nostalgic, but I just wanted to throw another bit of Karin Brain Spillage onto the page before I hit the crazy novel writing for the next 30 days. Maybe it is because the Muse is with me! I hope so…

I may also have some writing assignments in addition to NaNo that could pull me back here in the next month — obviously, there will be something posted here if I do. Otherwise, if you see me goofing around on FB or Google+ too much in the coming days, holler at me and tell me to “GO WRITE.”

First off, though, I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Halloween.

Another** cute window from Microlithe, the association at 59bis rue Olivier Metra, 75020

** I posted  about another one of their windows a year ago.

For more thoughts and photos, please keep reading!

A Parisian Leafy Mess, Redux

Must Be An Existentialist Tagger

© Karin Lynn Bates Snyder

Photo taken November 7, 2010 at the corner near the Boulevard de la Villette and Avenue Jean Jaurès, below Métro Jaurès, Line 2 (19th arr.)

This is the post that just cannot seem to get written! It’s for a good cause, however. I am successfully, so far, participating in NaNoWriMo for the third year, writing fiction, on target with word counts, and HEY. We may get a novel out of me, yet! *knock on wood, and spitting FTOU! like my Greek friend taught me to do when writing things that tempt the fates to toy with the hubris of humanity*

Anyway, I have been working away at this post for about a week now, adding in bits here and there.

Here’s what’s been on my mind in that time.