It's over

Quiet has descended on the small Parisian apartment where I spent the holidays. Everyone has gone: my hostess to the hospital where she has a 24-hour guard and as I write this I imagine my daughter at Charles de Gaulle waiting for the boarding call to take her back to Virginia.

Tomorrow I leave for Geneva where I have a full schedule of writing and catching up on unfinished business. Florian and I have social plans for the next few weeks.

The last few days have been like a continuous pajama party in this small apartment overlooking red tiled Parisian roofs. Although we did some sight-seeing and have had a couple of good meals in restaurants including my beloved Le Train Bleu and a favourite vegetarian restaurant, we also spent time in looking at the falling snow and watching movies. I finally saw Shrek I and our hostess was able to see both I and II. Llara "pulled a Robbert" and couldn't walk by the Virgin shop without looking over the DVDs and CDs.

Llara continued her tradition of coming to Europe for a good haircut, much more jet setty than she is in reality.

Time was suspended as we all escaped for a few days from our regular schedules that are too cram packed. In a way it is a renewal before we throw ourselves back into our lives where we aren’t able to sit and drink tea and coffee on the couch or in a café as we share the secrets of our lives.

The Christmas tree will be thrown out, the decorations put away, the days will grow longer. Life will begin again.