Cruise?

"How about a cruise from Moscow to St. Petersburg? Would you be tempted?" The question from Michel came halfway through lunch on Sunday.

Would I be tempted? You bet! Sounds much better than renting a "camping car" (RV) and driving through Tuscany - which he mentioned last time we met.

The Russian river cruise wouldn't happen before next spring/summer, so there's plenty of time to think about it - and to decide if I'm interested . . .

Midterm elections

No, you haven't stumbled into a political blog by mistake.

I've been struck this week by how closely the French have been following the recent midterm elections. It started with my landlords and neighbors René and Sophie who invited me to dinner the other night to watch the election results on TV. French TV channels featured several prime-time programs tracking the U.S. political races. To be fair, René and Sophie spend several months a year in California, and although they aren't U.S. citizens and can't vote, they follow American politics very closely.

Later, on Friday afternoon, I joined a French/English conversation group which meets regularly nearby. There were around 50 people, in small circles of 6-8 people, with about 80% French and 20% English/American. The format includes 45 minutes of English and 45 minutes of French conversation. I joined a group which included a nucleus of French regulars who have been participating in the conversation groups for over 7 years. Again, I was surprised at the level of interest in the U.S. elections and our English conversation included an in-depth analysis of the results along with many comparisons of the Obama administration vs. the Bush administration. Needless to say, Obama is much better regarded here than his predecessor, and the French will be watching and hoping that Obama will be successful in implementing his agenda despite the recent setback.

Just another reminder of why I like living here. The people are engaged, interesting, and interested in the wider world.

Michel

The first meeting with Michel went a little bit better. I met him through eDarling which is remarkably similar to eHarmony in its time-consuming questionnaire that attempts to make better matches. In fact, the site is so similar that I thought it might be owned by eHarmony. No, said the customer service agent, but eHarmony is a major investor in the company.

So far, I prefer eDarling. It provides more background information on its members and less focus on purely physical description. It also offers "guided communication" much like eHarmony - meaning that you are given tools to learn more about the person before meeting, rather than presenting a completely random selection of age-appropriate members.

Michel's profile seemed interesting; active, well traveled, with many interests in common. He has a daughter and four grandchildren who live in Minneapolis, so he was particularly interested in meeting an American. We have been corresponding for several weeks and finally met after my return to Paris.

This time, a meeting for coffee was followed by a movie and a light dinner. He was much more of a gentleman and willing to take things at a pace more my speed. We'll see if he's a good listener. . . I've agreed to meet him for Sunday lunch and a concert afterwards.

Papinou

"Papi" is a French expression for "Grandpa". "Nou" reminded me of "nounours" = teddy bear. So when I saw the pseudonym "Papinou" I conjured up the image of "Grandpa teddy bear". The photo supported this image - blue eyes, nice smile, a certain gentleness. I discovered Papinou via Meetic, the largest French internet dating site. Or rather he discovered me. He "flashed" me. Huh? What does THAT mean? "Vous avez reçu un flash."
After some head scratching, I figured that "flash" was Meetic-speak for "wink" in eHarmony-speak. It's called sending a "smile" (sourire) in eDarling-speak. I'm learning a whole new language!

Meetic is big on pseudonyms and short on personality profiles. It also seems to focus on physical appearance - with specific questions regarding weight, silhouette, and style of dress. For "style" I had to choose between BCBG (huh?), branché (trendy), business, bohème, classique, ethnique, décontracté, rock, sportif, or other. Only in France! Another question: which of your body parts is the most attractive? And what are you looking for in him? Pecs? abdominals? hands? feet? butt? etc. To be fair, eyes and smile are also included in the list, as is "the most beautiful is not on the list".

Anyway, besides age, pleasant photos, a non-smoker who likes restaurant and cinema, plus "flash", I didn't have much else to go on when it came to Papinou's description. And after several emails back and forth, we finally met for coffee after my return to Paris.

He seemed surprised to see that I resembled the photo in my profile. Apparently, lots of people don't resemble their photos? He made lots of disparaging remarks about botox and liars. Lots of disparaging remarks about a lot of things. And he was too eager to hold hands and tutoie. Not my cup of tea! So much for my initiation into online dating . . .

Kissing frogs

eHarmony? eDarling? or Meetic? or all three?

Do I really dare subscribe to an internet dating site?

I had a great visit with Teri and JD who told me how they met through eHarmony. They explained the process thoroughly. Hmmm.

Later, I met Catherine and Jean Pierre, each with three school-aged children, who met through the French site Meetic. They, too, swore that the system does work - even though it is extremely time consuming to go through dozens, sometimes hundreds, of profiles of eligible singles.

Eventually, after being assured that yes, nice girls (and older women) DO go online, and yes, there are plenty of older gentlemen out there - I decided to subscribe. Besides, I'm not desperate. I am perfectly happy living alone - although an occasional dinner companion might be nice. Furthermore, I decided that it could make a good story - maybe some journalistic research? Could I deduct the subscription costs from my taxes? Or maybe another study in social anthropology? Why not?

So which site to choose? And more importantly, how do I describe myself? And what AM I looking for, anyway??

I eventually signed on to all three sites.

I subscribed to eHarmony first, but in hindsight that didn't make much sense - their members are primarily located in the U.S. and I'm looking for a dinner date, not a penpal. The eHarmony site did offer some very interesting contrasts with the French sites which I'll go into in a later post.

I also subscribed to a European site called eDarling. Funny name, but very similar in format to eHarmony in that it involves an extensive questionnaire which supposedly enables a computer to provide good matches. I'd had a couple of "hits" on this site and started corresponding with a couple of people but had yet to actually meet anyone face to face. I was traveling in September, and then unexpectedly returned to the U.S. in October. Now that I'm back, maybe I can get back down to "business". And I have.

Oh, so now you want details? Stay tuned!

Salon du Chocolat

Now that I'm back, I've been busy unpacking and trying to make my apartment seem more like home. I've been buying plants for both indoors and outdoors. Did I mention that I have a balcony? I'll post photos soon.

In the meantime, I've also been out exploring again. I saw a poster announcing the Salon du Chocolat and decided to visit.


There were demonstrations of all types.







And a Chocolate Masters contest with famous judges:



One of the judges was Jean Charles Rochoux. You may remember his shop

I liked the sculptures:




The show also had displays of non-edible uses of chocolate - such as skin care:


But the show wasn't just about displays, there was plenty to eat!

Jim Fluckey

I lost two very special people during the month of October. My dad on October 15th, and a special mentor, Jim Fluckey, on October 7th. Mr. Fluckey (as we called him in high school) was my first French teacher. I had him for three years of French at West High School in Denver. Mr. Fluckey was also the music teacher and director of the concert choir. I was fortunate to be accepted to the concert choir which meant I got to sing in West High's Singing Christmas Tree for two years. Those were some of the best years of my life.

I also participated in two of the three "alumni" Christmas Tree concerts in 1982 and 2004. Furthermore, I was a French major in college, and when it came time to do my student teaching, I went back to West High and served as student teacher in French under Mr. Fluckey. Following that year, I moved to Paris and stayed for six years. I think Mr. Fluckey finally forgave me for having a better accent in French than he did.

We stayed in touch ever since I graduated from West High in 1967 - most recently when we talked via Skype from my apartment in Paris to his room at the Hospice of St. John in Lakewood. Jim Fluckey passed away on October 7th. He was 88 years old. I arrived in Denver in time to attend a memorial service for him on October 17th. I met his children and grandchildren for the first time, and also reconnected with many old friends - both students and teachers from West High. I'll miss Jim Fluckey. He was my mentor, and a big reason that I live in France.


Here is a short video that you can watch on YouTube commemorating our final alumni concert in 2004: