cousins in paris

our first night in paris, our cousin alain had us all over. my parents, my brother and his family and i met 7 cousins. the next day, alain and his girlfriend betty took us for a little sightseeing to the sacre coeur, the holocaust museum and the jewish section where you can get everything from dreidels to kosher sushi.

i've always knew that france rolled over like toy poodles to the nazis. but i never realized just how active they were in turning over the jews to the nazis.

our cousin's alain and serge's mother was taken and killed by the nazis. the holocaust museum has a wall with all the names of people in france who were killed. alain is pointing to his mother's name here:

their father wasn't home at the time and was able to go into into hiding. alain was about 7 and was sent to catholic children's home. serge was about 2 and ended up with a family. after the war, their father found them both.

there are many stories about children not being found, or having no one left to look for them and grew up never knowing that they were born jewish. there was an article in the nytimes recently that talked about people finding this out in thier 60's. surprize! you're jewish!

betty's whole family was taken. i don't know the specifics, but they were all killed.

this picture is of alain (pointing out the eiffel tower to my dad), betty and my parents at the sacre coeur:

here's a happier pic of my newphew joey with the eiffel tower.

my parents, brother and his family:

house pics

here are some more pictures of the house. i should have included pictures of the guest bedroom with the king size bed... hint, hint.

here is a picture of the stream behind my house.


this is a view from the backyard.

another view from the backyard.

from the window by the stairs.

bad blogger!

i've been a bad blogger. <<< forgive me father for i have sinned... my last blog was early november. >>>

i've been working my ass off since then trying to get my life together. holy crap moving is very hard work. it's been kind of fun putting the house together. i've been working hard to get it done so i can enjoy my winter break. i'll also be having company stay over, and i want to be the host with the most you know. (really- i'm not gay.)

the 'rents come tomorrow. on 21 dec, we leave for paris to meet a whole bunch of family we've never meet. three generations of cousins living just outside the city. my brother and his family will join us. the last time i was in paris i was with just my bro, this time it will all of us. pretty cool.

after that we're going back to his house in holland. after my parents leave, it looks like my bro's family will come visit me in germany and see the house.

overall, it should be a pretty mellow vacation. and i won't have to fly overseas like usual. instead, i'll be spending the time in my car driving to paris, holland, and back home.

i'll post pics soon.