Friends again ...

... following yesterday's French friends, here are Ellie and Carl, visiting from the Bay area in northern California.*

We're at La Régalade in Paris 14th-an excellent restaurant. A French foursome next to us proved to be extraordinarily sociable; it turned out they are flying to Spain to attend the Champions League football match between Barcelona and Milan. We chatted volubly for at least 30 minutes, aided by a Poire Williams (pear brandy) which they treated me and Carl to. Most touchingly, they expressed more than once their gratitude to America for its role in World War II and after. A wonderful evening!

*Our connection with Ellie goes back roughly 50 years, when Ellie met my wife Marylee's first husband, Fred--in France, as it happened. Fred kept in contact with Ellie, and after a few years Fred met Marylee, and eventually Marylee met Ellie, who hadmarried Carl. After Fred died in an accident, I met Marylee, and thus eventually Ellie and Carl. Hope you all can follow this :)