Author: Suzanne
The Floors at the Hermitage
June 28, 2015
The thing about a palace is that it is designed to be overwhelming. It’s a thing. If you want my opinion, building an art gallery beats the heck out of building an army…but there it is. Today, I’m going to talk about a couple of floor details. In the room below, there is one of…
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What is it about Art Galleries?
June 27, 2015
The first time I was blown away by a visit to an art gallery I was 20. A mentor and good friend sent us to the National Portrait Gallery on our first trip to London. Suddenly, all of the pictures from all of my school history books came to life in front of me. Queen…
I Remember Traveling with Children…
June 27, 2015
I ran into a couple in the Frankfurt airport traveling with two small sisters. The girls were dressed in matching outfits. I laughed, and told them that I used to do the same and am now accused of “completely mortifying” my youngest. She is probably right – AND – so was I. She could disappear…
Welcome to Russia…
June 26, 2015
What I love about travel is the unexpected. I am writing from St. Petersburg, during the time of the White Nights, where the sun sets at midnight. It is beautiful here. The city is full of canals, cosmopolitain food, and kind people. There were two roller blading guys moving down the sidewalk and through the…
25 years later…
December 6, 2014
25 years ago today, 14 female engineering students were killed at Ecole Polytechnique. I was studying for my PhD at the time, teaching the same course those women were taking. This anniversary is always vivid for me. On the one year anniversary, three of us were interviewed in a long piece CBC did about women…
Gratitude, Abundance, and Blessings
October 12, 2014
An early Thanksgiving morning and much to be thankful for on this 50th birthday weekend. Our friends, Atsushi and Etsuko, and their two offspring, Hajime and Yuki, visited last night for two hours on their way to PEI to see Mom. That includes the time in the train station and on the way to the…
Monsieur Le Frommagier – and a Cherry Bomb
May 21, 2014
At Les Halles, the famous in-door market in Toulouse, you can buy some of the best cheese in the world, whole foie gras from both ducks and geese, various fowl with their heads still attached, and stinky fish that I would not touch – but there it is. I am spoiled about the fish. We…
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Le Canal de Midi
May 18, 2014
For years, I have come to Toulouse, rented a car, and died of envy as I watched people on bicycles enjoy the canals. Today, we rented velo’s and rode the 15 km to Pechabou for wonderful Sunday lunch with Joel and Cathy, Martine, Joelle et Herve and Maella and Alessia, Agnes and Christian – all…
A Quest for Cafe’s
May 17, 2014
The weather here has been glorious. Our street is very narrow (tres etroit) and we are on the ground floor, so we wake up in the morning and look straight up – through the impossibly 10 ft tall windows – right at the top – to see the colour of the sky. It is blue…
Nous Sommes a Toulouse!
May 14, 2014
…and it is still a beautiful, happy place. We arrived at the gate in Dublin and suddenly moved back into our habit of only speaking French outside the apartment – to each other and to everyone else. It is SO lovely. The bags arrived safely – but they have a new control scheme on the…