Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity thud

Four days, five states, three cities, two colleges, one sick niece, too many sunrises, beaucoup Venti Soy Lattes, a big ole speeding ticket, and one predawn, white knuckle drive through whiteout conditions and, looong sigh, I'm finally home. Filthy, beyond tired, dangerously close to developing scurvy but, home...

I did muster enough energy to snag a very reduced in price Ralph Lauren Black Label cashmere Circle Sweater at the South Park Polo during my 12 hour pit stop in Charlotte. Now, if I had known, when I donned it at 3am the following morn, that I was facing a death defying drive through a blinding blizzard with a strooong possibility of a rendezvous with the jaws of life, I may have thought twice about pairing it with bleached out old cords, a sports bra, and bedroom slippers. I would have at least tossed on an Hermès bangle or two for the Rescue Crew...

Kindness of everyone for allowing me this brief respite from the Paris posts while I helped my sister caravan the girls back to school and then chauffeur her highness back home through the blinding snow storm while she sipped her hot chocolate, did her crossword, and periodically tossed a "MUSH!" my petrified way. And, Babe, who will NOT call asking for a translation of "very reduced in price"...XXOO

Dispatch From The Road

It's been a crazy couple of days and it ain't over yet. It started with karma slinging a sleepless night my way for infecting Hilbils with my flu. So much for my sister and I escorting the girls back to school with a 6am start. More like, all of us up helping a très sick Hilly til 5am and a 24 hour delay in hitting the road. Sooo, an alarm clock reset followed by Greenvulle, Columbia and a brief respite in Charlotte til we hit the road again trying to outrun mother nature...

Babe's been keeping my exhausted spirits up with boatloads of incoming pic texts and dispatches from home...

Ohhh, what I'd give to be curled up in a ball asleep...

Kindness of the bff Kimba for hosting us tonight at Casa Howlin. Although, not sure if it actually counts as a "night" with Mother Nature forcing a 3am checkout...XXOO

The Grand Palais des Champs-Elysées

We were très fortunate that Amy's father managed to snag the five of us tickets to the sold out Monet exhibit at The Grand Palais des Champs-Elyées...

Sooo fortunate, in fact, that two in our party with the stomach flu roused themselves from their sick beds just to go. And, let me tell ya, I later came down with that very same flu and wouldn't have been capable of that feat if Claude Monet himself had been there walking the step and repeat...

I left with a couple additions to my virtual masterpiece wish list; Les Dindons 172 x 175 cm, which made me want to jump up and down with glee...

And, La Rue Montorgueil 80 x 48.5 cm...

The rest of them are in a bidding war for the Red Kerchief. I saw snow through those french doors, stuck my nose in the air and walked on...

But, alas, we had one casualty at The Grand Palais. Mere minutes after I had been loving petting admiring Amy's mother's stole it was deftly slipped from her neck by a baaad person with good taste. Somewhere in Paris is a well dressed pickpocket...

Kindness of Mr. Fahrenkopf for getting us the tickets that allowed us to breeze past the queue of hundreds just hoping to make it in to see the exhibit. Now, had he known the cost of admission would be 12€ per person annnd a Louis Vuitton Mahina stole, there may have been a steep service charge for us freeloaders...XXOO

Musée du Louvre

We spent nearly five hours at the Musée du Louvre one day and the time absolutely blew by. This, is Babe's version of Hermès..

And, unlike the company I was keeping, in no way does my appreciation or eye match my très limited knowledge. But, as I flippantly retorted to Babe during one of his shut it down looks, it only remains ignorance when you don't ask questions. Even if they do embarrass your husband...

Winged Victory of Samothrace was hands down my favorite piece at the Louvre and I could have gobbled up at least another hour just gaping in awe...

Inaugural exposing question reared it's embarrassing head at the Mona Lisa where the fans literally ran when the doors opened: (whispering to Babe while also keeping a wide berth from the crowd after the previous days brush with pickpockets at the Monet exhibit) Whaaat's the big deeeaaal? It's DaVinci..and it's beautiful..buuut, I'd don't understand what makes it sooo famous? First shut it down look of the morn cast my way...

(apparently in not as much of a whisper as I had intended) Was she maaade without arms? Collective laughing and joking amongst our intimate party of five followed by another, undetected by anyone other than it's intended target, shut. it. down. look...

The Plato, Aristotle and Socrates busts where I kept it shut down. But, boy was I brimming with questions...

Napoleon's apartments where Mister Proper Pants loosened the reins a bit...

Guess that's what years of beating him in antiques and design categories on Jeopardy bought me...

And, the look of pride he and Amy cast my way while spying my interest in the above masterpiece is about to be replaced with pity when they read how I was really giggling to myself and thinking, Look! Can't wait to show Maxminimus the Dutch Masters incorporated early Butt Police calipers...

Kindness of everyone for taking this post in the light spirit 'twas intended. After my sentries protectively raked my well meaning editors over the coals yesterday I'm a smidgeon nervous about a possible storming of the castle if I keep offering up cake...XXOO

We Alllmost Didn't Make It

Over a très late Christmas night dinner of Crown Roast we spied snow falling through my parent's dining room windows. Not good. Within an hour our flight out of Philly to Paris the following day had been cancelled and the airline was refusing calls. Really not good. By the time we awoke the following morn we were well on our way to a 15 inch accumulation, the Philly airport was shut down and the airline was still refusing calls. Baaad...

Babe was mere minutes into his emerging fantasy of being snowbound on the sofa with me in the kitchen and football on the tube all week til my tantrum squashed that li'l dream bubble then bashed it to smithereens for good measure. Drastic actions were called for. We had one shot of getting out of the driveway and that was growing slimmer with each passing flake. An ultimatum was given, and said ultimatum was met; I was showereddressedpackedforparisandinthecar in under an hour. We were going to drive through the blizzard and take our chances at Dulles...

Six harrowing hours and many flipped trucks in ditches later, our trusty two wheel drive pulled in to the DC St. Regis where Babe had secured us a sweeet and managed to rebook us on a flight out of Dulles the following day...

Here's were my backup fantasy of living in the sweeet and consolation shopping at the Tysons Hermès all week started to form...

But, alas, Paris beckoned...

Sooo, I spent no less than two hours in the bathroom with the Disneyesque hologram TV in the mirror and the giant tub that held water up to my neck before bidding bonsoir to the long, stress filled day...

After my fav room service breakfast of yogurt, fruit, granola, croissant and a pot of tea, we left our neighboring White House digs, hit up the G'town Patagonia and Ralph Lauren for some last minute "essentials" then headed to Dulles where we managed an even earlier flight out. All's well that ends well with sweeets at the St. Reg and even better flights to Paris...

Kindness of Babe for driving through a blizzard annnd springing for my new DC home away from home. That's correct sir. I can't be expected to ever settle for the Fairfax again after THAT stay...XXOO

I'll Trade Ya Some Hermès Eye Candy...

I'm bartering some Hermès eye candy for oooone more sick day...

I can only take sitting up for short periods of time before collapsing with exhaustion...

And, I now completely understand how Mrs. Fahrenkopf, convalescing from the same bug, could literally have the Louis Vuitton scarf picknecked from her person at the Grand Palais while we ogled the Monet exhibit...

Someone could strip me down to my Cosabellas and I'd be none the wiser in this state...

Sooo I'm hoping the gorgeous pics of the Rue de Faubourg Saint-Honoré Hermès flagship store windows will buy me another day of bed rest. Although, I must admit it's not all heartbreak here folks. I ate juuust about as many macaroons as it took to make the above display so a li'l stomach flu ain't gonna hurt me...

Kindness of Pilgie M.D. and Lolly R.N for their round the clock care and kisses. And, of course Babe who has called from his NYC office throughout the past two days to tend to my whining and crying. Althooo, I'd be willing to bet that's not all heartbreak on his end either...XXOO

Pardonnez-Moi S'il Vous Plaît...

Looks like I brought back more than Roger Vivier and Hermès shopping bags from Paris. Juuust when I thought I'd escaped the horrible flu that brought down Amy and her mother during our trip, I awoke to find I had counted my blessing a l'il too soon. So, pardonnez-moi s'il vous plaít, while I crawl back into the bed I've been in since this morning and back to my OWN marathon and Gatorade. Fingers crossed it's a 24 hour thing...XXOO