The Towery's go to Paris

Bonjour Les Amis,

Tuesday at 6pm, we are scheduled to leave for Paris.
I am trying to finish my end of the semester semi-annual whole apartment cleaning. I have managed to toss out 4 garbage bags full of out of date computer manuals, random CD-ROMs, old socks, and the stacks of paper that we have shuffled around for the past semester. Now however it is so hot I can barely breathe, let alone think, move or organize.

I am busy listening to David Sedaris talk about learning French. In school, I took French 3 times. French 1. I know the days of the week, hello and goodbye, and I can ask, "Where is the library?” I have been trying to teach Duke to "sit" in French, but he seems to think I am trying to torture him. Then I have to scratch his belly and give him a treat. There is no trauma in Duke's world, which cannot be cured by a belly scratch.

Duke is coming to Paris with us. We could not leave our little dog-bunny for a month, while on our honeymoon in Italy we missed him like crazy and vowed to take him next time. Also apparently, the French love dogs. We thought it might help us fit in and talk to locals. I'll be the woman walking the dog, reciting the days of the week, look for us promenading up and down the Champs Elysee. The only glitch in this plan is that Duke has to fly as checked baggage. I am completely stressed out about this. He will be scared, and we will not be with him. I have just discovered that if it is too hot, above 85 degrees, they will not put Duke on the plane at all. At 5:45 today it is 84 degrees! Bon Voyage indeed!