M.I.A.

Okay, it has been an awful while since I have done regular postings. I have allowed distractions and made many exuses, but here I am again making another attempt to go back to blogging regularly. Summer is here and it is hot in Paris. Europe seems to be experiencing a heatwave at the moment and with schools finally out and thoughts of vacations underway, I am excited about the next coming months. Paris is lively in Summer in a way that reminds me of New York in August. The cities are quiet, yet active at the same time. Sure it's hot at this time, but I use it as an excuse to eat an ice-cream in public, to use a fan while sitting in a park, or squirting a friend with a water pistol. I grew up with the heat of Texas, so I can cope and to the contrary to the notion that people get most agitated in the Summer, I find the French to be most relaxed, understanding and even tempered to a point which I have never witnessed in Winter. People here live outside during Summer. Apartments are usually without air-conditioning, so you go hang out in a park with friends, a terrace, a sidewalk, the banks of a river or canal, or do as I do, a movie, till your place cools down. There is music everywhere in Paris during Summer. The streets begin to look like those Avedon photos in Vogue just after the war. There are street musicians and performers, painters come out. It is a bit stereotypical, but stereotypes have a foundation somewhere. Last week I was eating with Alain in a small restaurant close by and we could hear Chet Baker's music playing and a lone trumpeter practicing along. He was good. As I was listening and eating my couscous, I was transported to some North African outpost, where jazz musicians seemed to lose themselves. Paris can bring these kinds of moments, these experiences which no other city can. In this spirit, people cope with the heat by drinking rosé instead of the usual bordeaux red. They will even put ice in it. In a few weeks I go to the South of France. On the agenda is St. Tropez to Nice and everything close by including Monaco. There is sure to sun and with my camera, I hope, some good photographs. In the meantime, I will post some photos and thoughts of the past few months and try to catch up. Thanks to those who keep check on this little blog and I will try to post a little more often. Enjoy the Summer.