Chevagny And The Illegal Alien Twins

Last Saturday morning very early we left the apartment and headed to Gare de Lyon to board the TGV Train for our trip to the village of Chevagny (pop: approximately 71) to play for our friends Fred and Claudia's wedding which was a French Civil Ceremony.  I suspect most of the village turned out for it and we sang "When I Say I Do" which is a Clint Black song that we thought fit the occasion.  After being pretty much in the city for well over 5 months arriving in Chevagny was sort of like having an epiphany of sorts.  We rode the TGV Train from Paris' Gare de Lyon to Le Creusot where Fred and Claudia picked us up.  Chevagny is around 400 kilometers from Paris and it was a 25 minute drive from Le Creusot to get there so Le Creusot is about 25 km from Chevagny.  The TGV got to Le Creusot in about an hour and 15 minutes so let's just say that we were MOVIN.  I'm guessing it was around 250 mph.  We've never been anywhere on the ground going that fast and of course Kian slept pretty much the whole way.  The train was real quiet too as it's electric.  SNCF has TVG trains that go all over France and other parts of Europe.  Hmmmmmmm........why isn't this happening in the USA????????????

Let's just say that after a long weekend of playing music, wine, food, and the warmth of the people from the village we're pretty inclined to want to live there one day in the future.  It was a wondrous weekend for us all.  We have over 400 megs of photos taken and I'm attaching a link to this post so whoever is reading this can see where we've been.

Sorry it took so long to get this posted.  Cassie and and the rest of us have been laboring to get all of the forms, documents, photos, attestations and everything else ready for her trip back to the French Consulate and another audience with the Great And Powerful Oz there to get Kian and Niall's residency status locked in here as they still just have their passports which after 90 days here make them not legally here without what is called a "Carte de Sejour" AKA "Legal Residency Card" which is essentially a French Green Card.

Of course this involves more forms and paperwork than either me or Cassie went through to join the military way back when and even with everything in order there's a strong possibility that the Great And Powerful Oz might think of something else we need that we never knew we needed so it's been busy times around here.

Cassie has been on vacation and we've been "tourists" ourselves in Paris the last week or so but have learned that trying to do that here in August when EVERYONE ELSE who's a tourist is also here has convinced us that we'll see the rest of the sights and museums after Fall is in full swing here and the Summer crowds are gone.

I do have a list of other blog entries I need to make about a host of topics and will do so with much more regularity in the future.

Love to all everywhere and thanks as always for caring enough about us to read these posts.

A bientot!

Sid

PS
Here's the link to our Chevagny photos:
Close to Heaven

My Seventh Blog

It has now been six months since our coming to Paris and things just keep coming to us. Because of all the work we've had as of late, it was difficult to find a time to place the next blog, but I got it here now. I'm already halfway through my second quarter in Strayer Online, and my current score is 91.91, and I hope to keep getting better. We once went over to a our friend Erik's house sleep over on a Saturday and got back home on the following Sunday earlier in the summer. Niall and I both got a part-time job at the American Library around two months ago and we help by sorting out books, DVDs, and CDs. Last week we even attended a village wedding to two new friends of ours (the parents of our friend David since his mother and step-father weren't married, and since it was a village it wasn't very big, but no less exciting) and we stayed their for three days before returning home by train. Today my brother and I got to help the sort out and prepare letters for the American Library, a job that I very much enjoyed (especially since I did something like it in high school back home). A lot of interesting things have happened to us over the course of these months and I think more will follow and I look forward to it all. Things have been fairly good for the majority and I know they will continue to go well for us as long as we continue working as hard as we can to maintain it.

By Kian Hagan

Musical Hostages In The Metro And Finger Prints

Sometimes here in Paris one can be held hostage on a moving Metro Train by guerrilla musicians of questionable intent or talent pulling mini karaoke rigs and singing off key ditties (if one can even call them that) in foreign languages over the train noise while you're just trying to get to where you're going. 

Cassie keeps telling me that I can't have a taser here and I'm also not supposed to throw things from our 4th floor windows at the sucky trumpet players that occasionally torment us right outside our aparment.  Of course they all have the temerity to try to make anyone near them think they deserve money and I just glare at them when they do.

Today however me and the twins came across a most unique duo in the correspondence between the 1 line and 7 line while going to the 18th arrondissement to get their finger prints done for their FBI Criminal Background Check for their French Residency Permits (Carte de Sejour).  It was a tuba and accordion duo and they were GREAT!  I threw money willingly and will throw money again if given the opportunity to hear them again.

The guys will write about their finger printing experience themselves so I won't steal their thunder.  We got to explore a new neighborhood and meet a lady who represents USA Aide here which is an old organization that dates back to 1920 and is what she called an "NGO" or non-governmental agency that helps Americans in Paris.

We start vacation tomorrow! 

Love to all everywhere!

Bon journee!

Sid

Enrico Pieranuzi Last Night

What can I say that will truly describe what Cassie and I saw up close and personal last night at Sunside Jazz Club in Chatelet?  Seeing Italian Jazz Pianist Enrico Pieranunzi http://www.enricopieranunzi.com/english/ with a bassist and drummer in a small listening room in Paris was sublime.

The space wasn't air conditioned and it was quite warm but a capacity crowd was awed by the brilliance of the performances and the entire trio.  He played primarily standards and nothing from his latest CD of Scarlatti improvisations but the crowd was his from the first notes he struck.  The last time Cassie and I saw him was at a music festival held at Randolph Macon Women's College back in the late 80s with Marc Johnson and Peter Erskine which was also a memorable show. 

I just had to write a bit about the show so we'll have this to remember it by later on.  Suffice to say that mere words just don't do it for how amazing his virtuosity is and how the various improvisations, key changes, and tempo changes sometimes happened so fast that both of us were almost unable to keep up with them.

Long story short, if any of you ever get the chance to see this musical titan play live DO IT.

Love to all everywhere!

Sid

Mark Patrick And Susie

I'm finally getting around to writing this entry.  2 weekends ago my old friend Mark Patrick arrived here with his girlfriend Susie on the ICE Train from Frankfurt.  It was the first time I'd seen him in person since Fall 1977.  Of course we'd never met Susie before either and they arrived at around 11:45 PM Friday night.  Cassie and I were a bit sleepy but wine flowed and after 30 minutes of conversation Susie who speaks some English mentioned she'd like to hear Cassie and I sing so I grabbed a guitar and Mark grabbed a guitar and before we knew it 3:00 am was close at hand.  For me it was like a circle closing and Cassie lit up after hearing Mark play and sing.  Of course the stories flowed about how Mark and I had played in the Metro here back in the 70s and Cassie got to meet still another old friend of mine from way back then.

Mark never left Europe and has lived in Germany since I left.  He makes his living playing and teaching much like our dear friend Robbie Wells back in Lynchburg.  The only difference though is that Mark is covered by a national health plan in a country that prides itself for the atmosphere it engenders for everyone who lives there be they artists, or CEOs of major corporations.  Having Mark and Susie here for 3 nights was easy and we'll be looking for an excuse down the line to travel to Frankfurt and let them show us around.  As always, for me being around Mark was and still is an inspiration.  He's even more musical now of course than he was back in the day and he left me with a pile of his music to listen to.  From the time I first heard "You And I In Heaven" I couldn't get it out of my head and still can't.  He's written a concept piece about the life of Saint Patrick and it's beautiful stuff.  I'm (we're) so lucky to count him and Susie as friends and the sheer wonder and awe of actually being here again is still very present in our every day lives here. www.markpatrick.de

Mark told both me and Cassie that we are a "blessed" family.........  Amen to that.............*

We're very thankful that they both came to see us and share our hospitality......

Have a great day wherever you are.

Love to all everywhere.....

Sid