May (be)

The builder is, surprise, surprise, running a week or two behind.
Now, we are living amongst boxes and longing for space. Since this apatment came furnished, and I sent some boxes from the US when we first moved here, there is too much in this space when things we own are boxed. When the builder gave us a moving week, we started to pack. Now, we are mostly packed and we have another couple of weeks in this place. Very little ever goes as planned.

We saw a fabulous show last weekend of Russian icons at the Louvre. Things that had never before left Russia and probably never will again. The gold! The intrigue. So and so the Damned, whose name, I imagine was changed to Damned once he died, killed the first two saints, I think making them saints. The whole thing looked like a superman comic done large after awhile. In that, the saints seemed to do more and more fantastic feats and surviving amazing imaginative tortures. Doves flying above while their heads are sawed with serrated double handled saws. I've seen photos of these things but I had no idea how fantastic and brilliant they were. The colors were vivid and the gold work was intensely intricate, if that makes sense.
It was a nice day. Everything was blooming, the sun was shining, it was breezy, but not too windy. Frederic had said that he had felt very badly the day before. "Doing the couch potato" as he put it. As it turned out, he was coming down with the measles. He seemed to be having a good time but I imagine he was suffering a bit. We walked a lot, as we always do with him.
We have both had the measles, so no problem for us. But, I feel sorry for him. Since he doesn't have a bath, just a shower, he can't even soothe himself in a tub of oatmeal.
Add that to Adrian's paralyzed vocal chord and it is very hard for those guys these days. He seems to have gotten it from a virus. It must be hellish for someone who talks as much as he does.
Yesterday, was May 1. A holiday with, manifestations (protests about pay, conditions and proposed Sarko induced job cuts) Everyone buys lilies of the valley and walks home with them and some sign or costume from protests or celebrations, I'm not quite sure. Its nice to be outside, if just to be away from the boxes, but Paris is beautiful in the spring, so sometime in the future it will just be pure bliss, no boxes at home and Paris still outside.