Day 55 from France: Sudden Change In Plans

Shaboom sends us her update from Paris Normandy and beyond...

We had breakfast in Les Bayeux before we headed to the beaches made famous by the Americans in WWII...

I walked around the American Cemetary all the while thinking of Sergeant Major and wrote about it a little HERE.

As you may have noticed, since Karen and I each take a day to post one calendar day in our experiment, it'll take us a year to post 6 months. For example, Monday I posted my day 54 experience, and Tuesday was Karen's day 54 post. So at this point, we're still only posting about our experience in late April.

Having said that, when my parents were visiting, some crazy Icelandic volcanoes decided to erupt without checking with me first! Therefore, my parents were stranded. A-HA!!! All just part of my plan to get more of these extravagant all-expenses-paid meals.

But seriously, my parents realized that it would be nearly a week before all the airports would re-open and more weeks after that before all the canceled flights during the airport closures could possibly be corrected. They decided they didn't want to wait that long to get home and so the solution ended up being that I would drive them back up north - even though it would probably take about 24 hours each way.

We went to Caen and had lunch at McDonald's while we popped out our laptops and used their free wifi to plan our last-minute detour.

By bedtime, we were somewhere in Germany.

Don't know what a BiFi roll is but it looked something like a beef jerky hot pocket that you don't heat up.

Below the RedBull Cola, you see ORANGE COLA. I wonder if that tastes as gross as it sounds - I mean, lemon and lime Coke is delicious!

I neither ate nor bought any of the above photographed crazy German convenience store products. But I REEEAAALLLLY wanted to.

Day 54 from Burbank: Chips crisis.

The chips crisis continues.

It's making me miserable.

This is the dialog going on in my head.

"Who cares? Live your life. Tomorrow is another day. You won't be able to have chips again until this is over so you better eat them all."

"Wait........ What?????

AHA!

That's it!

That's what got me into this in the first place.

The fear of being denied what I love makes me want more of it.

A calm comes over me.

The crisis is over for a moment.

I stop in midchip, tell myself I can have whatever I want. If I want chips, I can have them. The French Skinny is not about dieting. It's about NEVER dieting but enjoying what I'm eating, sitting down to eat, and when I'm full I stop.

The chips are back in the cupboard........ For now.

How did this fear of being deprived creep back into my brain? A lifetime of practice maybe?

I feel hopeful again.

Then I remember I'm getting on the scale in 2 days. I already know it's going to be bad. For the first time since I started this it will be bad.

I will not diet.

I will not diet.

I will not diet.

Back to walking, baguettes, fresh vegetables, fruit, real butter, crepes and lots of sex.

By the way, Hubby has no idea I'm going through a chips crisis. He's just happy I'm home and we're having a wonderful time (ahem) making up for lost time.

*I was going to take a picture of the chips and salsa but.............I ate them.

I photographed these hummingbirds in my Momma's backyard.

Day 54 from France: Shopping For Yachts

Shaboom sends us her update from Paris Brittany/Normandy...

Breakfast in Lorient before the boat show went something like this...

And off we went! I stood around watching my parents contemplate cherry wood or mahogany? Master bath on the right side of the boat or the left? Do we need more closet space? Stainless steel appliances or wood paneled?

Here's some photos of the catamaran they liked best.

I think they finally realized that I'd still summer with them no matter which version they chose, so we went off in search of lunch. I found this mouth-watering baked potato stand. They were amazing! And huge! I couldn't eat a whole one so Mom and I shared. Mmm... bacon, sour cream, tomato, butter, salt, cheese...

We walked around the harbor some to work off our huge meal. I started thinking about whether or not agreeing to go on this short trip with my parents was such a good deal. I could have worked all weekend - click here to read more.

We then hit the road again, leaving Brittany and entering Normandy. We stopped a few times for a latte so the old folks could stretch their legs. This is an interesting way to road trip as I usually only allow stops when the gas tank is on empty - I don't care how badly you have to pee!

In France, although you have to pay for toll roads out the wazoo, it's nice to have relatively clean restrooms that don't make you pay to go. When you've been driving 800km straight and you REALLY have to pee because some crazy nazi won't let you stop unless you need gas, that is not the time to be fishing through your purse for a 20 centimes piece or whatnot.

We arrived in Les Bayeux where we are spending the night. We checked into our hotel and took a long walk.

Then we spotted a lovely restaurant and we knew we had to have dinner there tonight.

So we did! I photographed the view (with my iPhone) as the sun went down.

We had a bottle of rosé,

pâté with toast points and some sort of sweet apple yumminess,

the fish for the main course,

baked goat cheese salad,

and profiteroles for dessert!

Sing It Sister!

JOYEUX DIMANCHE

Happy Sunday from SHABOOM in Paris...

Every June in Paris, the French Ministry for Culture puts on a music festival across the city called Fête de la Musique which wraps up a week later with Les Voix Sur Berges in which my group is singing.

These photos are borrowed from the internet.