I battle the not-so-small voice inside that says, “You can do just a little bit more” all the time, even when the body and the other voice say, “just take it easy today”. So the interior dialogue between the doer and the pause command has had a dueling session today. I had every intention to go to a Pissarro expo that is at the Luxembourg Gardens. When I finally showered, completed all the morning tasks and had lunch thanks to the market trip yesterday, it was nearly 2:00 PM. Surely I could take a walk to the French telephone store to get my Bouygues telephone chip to connect to the satellite…done. With that fixed it will be easy to summon Uber when it’s raining too hard or I’m too tired to walk that far. A quick stop for such mundane things as pepper and the right size coffee filter so I’ll no longer have to cut #6 down to #4 (your cue to laugh, Jan), and I’m home drinking tea and about to continue reading a book about Gertrude Stein and her salon of artists, writers, and philosophers who hung out right around the corner from me in her home at #27 rue de Fleurus. That feels like the right way to spend the remainder of this day. My friends Nancy and Sue called in sick this morning so our planned tea time at The Ritz failed to materialize. Three days into my stay here I’ve mastered the music machine and have had French Jazz and Chopin’s piano music filling this space all day long. Did I say its chilly and misty outside? So glad to report that the pause command won the battle today.

Today is VE Day, a national holiday in France, to honor the end of World War II, and it is also a return to normal after the past several months of frenetic campaigning for a new French leader. “WWII Victory Day (la fête de la victoire, le jour de la libération) is a holiday to celebrate the end of World War II and the French people’s freedom. It is the anniversary of when Charles de Gaulle announced the end of World War II in France on May 8, 1945.”. I passed a bronze statue of Charles de Gaulle in a little square as I walked to the phone store…paused to remember that imposing figure of a French leader and opine for someone of his stature and leadership skill who could help organize our chaotic world right now.

This brush store is just around the corner….a brush for every chore. You could just call this the French Fuller Brush Store!!

My stash of fruit and vegetables from the Sunday Market

I could not help but notice how the red stockings in the top corner of this photo coordinated with the cute hen on the table.