"Had there been no difficulties and no thorns in the way, then man would have been in his primitive state and no progress made in civilization..."

"Had there been no difficulties and no thorns in the way, then man would have been in his primitive state and no progress made in civilization and mental culture." - Anandibai Joshee


Well, I'm back from Paris and the Marathon de Paris. WHAT A TRIP!

Rachel O and I flew there and arrived on Tuesday morning. After we checked into our hotel, we were joined for lunch by Melanie and Rachel J. We had a lovely afternoon and drank, ate, talked, walked. Then Rachel O and went back to our hotel and booked tickets to the south of France! Went back out for the most extraordinary dinner at Des Ombres underneath the Tour Eiffel. We ate, drank, talked and watched the Eifell Tower twinkle all night. Then Mel & Rachel J joined us and we went out for drinks in the Moulin Rouge area. Then Rachel O and I went back to the hotel for 3-hour sleep (I had been up for 48+ hours at this point) and woke up at 4am and rushed off to ORLY airport and flew to Nice!

Once there, we rented a stunning, brand-new silver Mercedes E250 and drove to CANNES! My dream (almost) come true. We booked a room at THE CARLTON (another dream fulfilled) right on La Croissette staring into the Mediterannean Sea! Oooh la la! Then we ate and drove off into the mountains of Provence. We stopped at a tiny village called Flayosc and had drinks and nibbles. There we met a lady from.....Unionville! The same home town as Rachel O!

After chatting with her and walking around the village, we jumped back in our car and drove to St Tropez!

DOES IT GET MUCH BETTER????

Then after sushi, drinks and tons of ice cream, we drove along the coast back to Cannes and Rachel zonked out. I stayed up on La Croissette dreaming of the Cannes Film Festival I will one day attend. Then finally went to bed.

Next day we buffeted in the main restaurant and headed out. Driving now to Montecarlo! OOOOOH MY GOODNESS! How utterly beautiful. We lunched and Rachel gambled ($20 Euros in a slot -- gone in 5 seconds) and then headed back to Nice to the airport to catch our flight back to Paris!

WOW...those first couple of days were some of the most extraordinary of my recent/whole life!

LIFE IS AN ADVENTURE...thorns and all!!!!