“Just throw your ears in the air, then pin ’em back like you just don’t care” Bleu sez ‘Joyeuses Fêtes’ to all U party peepul!
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thoughts from the French License guy
Month: December 2017
Happy Chanukah from Bleu! Yamika, shmamika. Bleu knows that any old head covering will do. And that’s the way Bleu likes to roll, any old way that suits him!
Here’s one tune which always gets him rolling, from Klezmer to funK to Kountry and rocK and back again. You Kan’t sit still!
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A couple years ago, I’m in Stockholm for a business meeting. I think my presentation’s going pretty well when someone opens the door, says something in Swedish, and my audience gets up and leaves.
My befuddled look meets the smile of my colleague Urban, who explains it’s Saint Lucy’s day. “What’s that?” I ask, and he just says to come and see. This is what I saw:
Here’s wishing you a serendipitous moment of unexpected pleasure this holiday season!
© Copyright Joe Start. All rights reserved. © 2017
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Sure, there are many great places to see in London, but I always return to Charing Cross road. That area of the city has everything I want. No matter if I’m in the mood for adventure, fantasy, investigation, a food fetish or planning my next excursion, they have it. There are at least a dozen specialised book shops. And then there’s Foyles, the granddaddy of independent bookstores in London.
Friends who live in the big black smoke ask where should we meet, and when I tell them Foyles, they say, “What? Again?” Of course. “Haven’t you already got all the books they sell?” They keep making more, you see. And now I’ve contributed to this inexhaustible supply, by writing my own book. Wouldn’t you know it, Foyles has that, too!
Did that Californian expat ever finally get his French License after 10 years? Wander down a half-flight of stairs to the travel writing section and find out at the bookstore!
Foyles
113-119 Charing Cross Road, London WC2H 0EB
| Monday – Saturday | 9.30am – 9.00pm |
| Sunday | noon – 6.00pm |
+44-20-7437 5660
www.foyles.co.uk
© Copyright Joe Start. All rights reserved. © 2017
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What’s the first thing you must have before going abroad? Your passport, of course. That magical document opens border fences and invites you to delight your senses on the other side! Here’s a picture of mine:
Stanfords book store in London calls their loyalty card the ‘passport,’ which is completely appropriate. Travel books and maps are their raison d’être. That’s what they do exclusively. All six floors of an historic Covent Garden building are cheek by jowl with everything travel-related. Every destination is covered, and all means of transportation. The basement maritime section and charts are phenomenal. A couple times I’ve been so absorbed, staff have had to ask me to leave. “Closing? Now? But I’m in the middle of the South Pacific!”
Can you think of a more appropriate place for my travel memoir French License ? Sure, my adventure isn’t quite as harrowing as that of fellow Stanford patron Ernest Shakelton, but it sure felt like it! We both got out alive, and now my grind is your guffaw. Check out French License, and while you’re at it, pick up a map and a guidebook. Those pesky travel destinations keep building new roads and restaurants!
tube Covent Garden or Leicester Square
12-14 Long Acre, London WC2E 9LP
open 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. nearly every day
+44 20 7836 1321
www.stanfords.co.uk
© Copyright Joe Start. All rights reserved. © 2017
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I seem to cause trouble wherever I go, even when I’m not there…
This time, veteran expat blogger and Parisian property expert Adrian Leeds “laughed out loud” in her stylish nail salon while reading my book French License. No doubt this caused a ruckus in that refined setting, a splattering of glitter and perhaps dremel damage. I’m dreadfully sorry.
The incident has hit the front page of her Parler Paris newsletter today. Now the whole town knows.
Look for Adrian on House Hunters International episodes on HGTV. She’s the one with nail polish spills up to her elbow. It’s all my fault.
Perhaps she’ll forgive me if I speak at one of her upcoming gatherings. Stay tuned for details in the new year…
© Copyright Joe Start. All rights reserved. © 2017
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