moseying along on Jeudi

The calm before the storm ... at this moment, after 10 p.m. local time, second daughter Myriam is being driven here from Marseilles with her energetic one-year old son Issaak. Tomorrow, the other grandchild, one-year old Maude, will arrive with her mother Sarah, and then Lynn's sister from Montreal with her two teenagers and her best friend ... and we'll be preparing lunch and dinner for twelve and then fifteen and then twenty-five. It's okay, they've done this before around here, but there will be a learning curve for moi.

Not much happening in the meantime. It's very hot, the cicadas are very loud and the pool, very welcome. I walked to the village today to buy cucumbers and peppers for my gazpacho, and once again, had nearly melted by the time I walked uphill back. Each patch of shade is a lifesaver. Jessica is doing important things like learning to fold multi-coloured napkins for the wedding tables and choosing music for the ceremony at the church. Her intended, Greg, just wrote me that he'll be arriving soon with his large group of "Australian barbarians." They'll be very welcome; no more discussion about the proper way to cut cheese with that casual, friendly, open bunch around.

While down in Gordes, I bought the Internation Herald Tribune because it's so wonderful to hold an actual newspaper in English, and the new Paris Match which has a cover article on John F. Kennedy Jr. What a heartbreak to see that handsome face again. In July 1999, I had just visited Lynn here for her 50th birthday and was returning home via Venice when Italian newspapers began flashing huge pictures of John-John. I couldn't read Italian but knew it wasn't good news.

The good news is that the New York Times has reported that War Horse, the superb show I saw in London, is going to be transferred to New York. You have a year or so to plan your trip. Don't miss it.