Mary Fleming

Posterity

Friday, 17 October We drove out to Normandy today to look at some work we're having done and to pick up our German car for the drive tomorrow. Elsa left her mark.

Seasonal fruits

Sunday, 12 October

Proof

Saturday, 4 October Sebastian K., who has been helping me in the publishing process (or I have been helping him, might be a more accurate description of the pecking order), sent me the first test copy of Someone Else from Berlin, where he lives. It arrived yesterday and quelle émotion,

Looking for home, Berlin

Monday, 29 September Back from a whirlwind week in Berlin, where we were looking for another temporary flat because the one we are buying is not (nowhere near) ready. Coming Home (http://www.coming-home.org/), which helps people like us looking for short-term rentals, proposed four or five places. It

La Rentrée, in Denial

Thursday, 25 September After a slothful summer, the French wind back up, which in Paris at least translates into becoming very impatient and grumpy. The quintessential image for me of a Parisian during la rentrée is a tanned face in a small, sporty car (or these days, alas, just as

Elsa, a French dog in Berlin

Elsa, chez elle Elsa is a French dog, une Parisienne, from the top of her soft, cocked ears to the tip of her feathery tail. Though of lowly origins, she carries her fine-boned frame regally, wears her extravagant golden coat with panache and gazes confidently at the world through Cleopatra

August

Friday, 5th September Everyone who knows anything about France is aware that the country moves into low gear starting le 14 juillet (Bastille Day) and is in neutral by early August. Some might say this year the country never got moving again at the end of August but that is

Good works

Tuesday, 1st July My daughter Georgina and son William have just left for Zimbabwe, where their father grew up. Since 2009, Georgina has been supporting the Emerald Hill Orphanage in Harare, via her NGO, ZOF. It aims to fund technical training for Zimbabwe orphans, so they will have a skill

Paris and beyond

Saturday, 21 June End of the first day of summer, the summer solstice, here in Normandy. After much rain, this has been a picture perfect day. I skip many weeks because time has been moving faster than I can see. In Paris, there are so many friends to cram into

Home

Wednesday, 14 May Worth getting up every morning at 6.30 and walking Elsa the dog via this... And this...

City of Memory 2

Tuesday, 6 May I have just been visiting my sister Catharine in Chicago, city of my birth, much of my childhood. Another town of memory for me. She lives near Lincoln Park, where I spent many, many hours as a child and young person, not far from Lake Shore Drive,

57-57

Saturday, 12 April Today I am 57. In fact, I am happier with 57 than 56; it’s a more comfortable number. Plus I was born in ’57 and like the symmetry. Husband away (not unusual) so had café lunch with my friend Louise D., near the Salle Pleyel, where

City of Memory

Thursday, 10 April My friend Louise D. invited me to a sale of accessories, jewellery in the 5th arrondissement (http://tipthara.com/fr/). It was in a hôtel particulier on the rue Lhomond, just a few doors down from where I used to live. From the balcony I could see

Home

Tuesday, 8 April Back to this: It's gorgeous and comforting--home. But: Why is a half move, back to what’s ‘normal’ so unsettling? I can’t stay still or get down to work and it’s not just the high stacks of bills and other post awaiting my

Good-bye, Alex

Tuesday, 1st April We packed our boxes, packed our car and left the Almstadtstraße, not without a flutter of emotion. It was home in Berlin for 15 months. Here is a tribute to the iconic TV tower on Alexanderplatz, as viewed from our balcony. Many people say it is a

Dreamland

Monday, 24 March In Berlin, you often need to slap yourself, to make sure you’re not dreaming. First slap was necessary Thursday. Nathan K. and his dog Spikey took Elsa and me for a walk at the old airport Templehof, which has been turned into a park. Except it

Unhappy Ending

Thursday, 13 March We finished the last episode of the two-season Weissensee. We are bereft.

Helmut Newton, Paris-Berlin

When this exhibition passed through Paris in 2012, I gave it a miss. Our plan to live half-time in Berlin was still a pipe dream of mine and I'd always felt slightly offended that Newton's leggy nudes in high heels attracted anyone's attention. But

Stasiland

Sunday, 9 March Our last weeks in this Mitte rental. Even though it’s furnished, everywhere I look, I see something that we’ve bought and needs packing. Yesterday we visited the Stasi Museum in what used to be the headquarters. It came to life particularly because so much of

Weissensee

Friday, 28 February We have started watching a truly great two-season German television series, Weissensee. It’s a Romeo and Juliet story that takes place in East Berlin in the 1980s. Martin and Julia fall in love. Martin is a local policeman; his father and brother Falk are Stasi officers.

Facing up, Perfect Storm

Monday, 24 February So I opened a Facebook page, then spent well over an hour looking for people I know. It is quickly apparent how much time one can waste on this communication tool. My friend Nathan gave me a lesson and at least now I’m not exactly frightened

Fish, Alive and Flapping

Friday, 7 February Happy to be back in Berlin too. The sun is shining; Elsa and I ran in the Friedrichshain Park. We went to Horvath’s for supper last night (http://www.restaurant-horvath.de/). On one of the most charming stretches in Berlin, the Paul-Lincke Ufer, in Kreuzberg. David

Home Again

Tuesday, 4 February I write from Paris, where I have returned for a board meeting at Bibliothèques sans Frontières). It was founded by my old friend Patrick Weil in 2007 and its mission is to help development in the Francophone world through books and reading. They work in 20 different

A Naked Ghost

Friday, 31 January The last week of this month’s intensive German just finished. Now I must get back to work, which causes the anxiety level to soar. What if I can’t write anymore? What if my current project, after many months idle, is like a dead fish, cold

Time Out of Joint

Monday, 27 January Down to -11° yesterday. Because we’d left Elsa in the car, we did not linger too long at the Vienna-Berlin exhibition, paintings between the 1890s and World War II, at the Berlinische Galerie ( http://www.berlinischegalerie.de/ausstellungen-berlin/rueckblick/2013/wien-berlin ). There were many artists I