Reflection on Paris and France

This post will be different......

The first of a series on my trip to Paris, France. " Normalement", I go in January with Robes for market.... This time I went with one of my two best friends, Charlotte, from California.

January the gardens are bleak. This is Place De Vosges..... 

This was shot on Sunday Sept 11th... Our apartement is a block away.

You would think this be business as usual at the Cathedral of Notre Dame, it wasn't.

 I had heard there would be a requiem mass for the victims of 9/11.. 

And we were too late because I didn't know where it was.... It was OPEN TO THE PUBLIC!  Some friends of ours got in very early and were able to be there.  Rebecca Grace and her husband from the Cheeky Cognoscenti blog. Lucky them.

So as we were walking by we saw serious security.....

And the government cars......

Lots of them with no license plates....

Inside was President Sarkozy and his wife,

the pregnant Carla Bruni along with other French dignitaries....

I thought it fitting there was a full moon shining at dusk.This is a building behind the cathedral.

 There were memorial services all over France..At Omaha Beach, and another one in Paris where they did a 10 story mock up of the Twin Towers one with the names of the victims and one with hand written condolences from the French People.  I can't imagine how many other things like this were done on a community level all over the country.

So I am thinking, when Americans see what they saw on TV on Sept 11th, 

do they realize how many other countries are grieving with them???????

And when people say they won't eat "French Fries" how stupid is that?????

And when they say mistakenly, the French, especially Parisians, are snooty,do they remember that the big statue we call  Lady Liberty proudly protecting us in New York Harbor was, um, a gift to us by the FRENCH people?

I feel privileged to have been in France on Sept 11, 2011. 

It gave me a great perspective......