More about France

This trip to France that I just returned to was probably the busiest trip I've ever taken anywhere. Two weeks passed in a sleep-deprived and social blur. Marco and I pretty much spent it seeing everyone we know there. Dinners, lunches, studio visits, late-night clubs, coffee, happy hours and all of it again the next morning. But I can't comlain -- revelry and dining, they're the best activities in France.

One remarkable phenomenon is that there is a wave of fertility dashing and crashing across the seas of our acquaintences . My goodness! I'm pretty unfamiliar with everything related to pregnancy and babies, since I was the youngest in my whole entire extended family. So imagine how awed and befuddled I was when during this trip we were in the presence of no less than 6 couples we know who are having (or just had) babies. I am so naive in all these matters. How mind-boggling. The oldest of the babies who have been born, Remy, is already a year-and-a-half old and I admit he's quite charming. His parents, Philippe and Sophie seem to really enjoy him and take everything with good humor. (Thanks Philippe and Remy too, for the ride from the airport!). The youngest new baby, Augustin, was just three days old when we met him. He was so tiny. Pyves and Maria (his parents) didn't even know how to give him a bath yet. It really made me realize there is no instruction manual with children. I would have no idea what to do! But it was sweet to see big tall Pyves holding such a tiny little person. Anyway I wish all the new parents and soon-to-be parents good luck. There is also Lucie, born to Manu and Magalie (I first met Manu as a young surfer in California!). And two more babies coming from Marc and Thu-Huong and Philippe and Sophie again (#2 already). Two of my friends from my stained glass classes are also having babies! Holy cow! So many babies....

New Year's Eve was a blast, probably one of the best I've spent in several years (since the memorable incident of Marco in the Paris metro... ;-). Marco and I went down to Montpellier, a bright sunny palm tree-lined city on the Mediterranean coast with Marco's friend Binouze and Binouze's Mexican girlfriend Carla. We all spent New Year's together. First we had a big dinner of lobster and shellfish at an Indian restaurant, the only place where we could find that had tables available. It was a total feast. Then we popped a bottle of champagne at Place de la Comedie, the main city square, with hundreds of other people and counted down the seconds to the New Year. People were climbing the big public fountain and it was young and energetic and sort of crazy. Then on a whim we headed out to a nightclub, which turned out to be pretty much the best nightclub I've ever found. I was just lamenting to Britt a couple weeks ago that I always have wanted to find a great nightclub, but have almost always been disappointed. Well this was THE great nightclub. Every song was great. It was as if they were playing all the music I love, but loud with a good sounds system and DJ and lots of happy people around. The mood was great, there was just the right amount of people, everyone was up for the whole night and we danced until 5 or 6am until we couldn't dance anymore. Binouze and Carla were so funny and we all left with big grins on our faces.

The other really noteworthy thing on this trip was that I visited the studios of two friends who studied stained glass with me. They are absolutely fantastic! I was so impressed. My friends Marc and Antonio both have fully functioning studios. They have clients. Their shopfronts look great, with lighted stained glass displays in showcase windows. They have discovered all sorts of clever ways to deal with the zillions of little needs of the business, like how to display panels with lights, how to do glass fusing, how to build their worktable and so much more -- all of this similar to things I've been trying to figure out too. I was so impressed. It was good to see them too. I also saw a few other stained glass friends and several of them also have started studios. There seems to be a good deal of success going around. Two people (one, Heidi, is another American like me) also did a year-long trip of all the historical sites in the world of glass. They visited and worked in glass studios in India, Syria, Egypt, Italy, Lebanon and more and they plan to write a book out of the material they gathered. So cool! It was really nice to be able to come back and talk with all these guys. So inspiring to see the activity and creativity that they are creating.