Well, my trip to Paris was amazing! We saw all kinds of sights, Versailles, the exterior of the Moulin Rouge, some crazy sex store street (on the way to Moulin Rouge from Pigalle), took a “petite train” through Montmartre, saw these trios of armed soldiers walking around about four different places (which was super creepy), the Eiffel tower, went on a bus tour of Paris and a ghost tour that met in front of the Notre Dame Cathedral. Saw the Thinker’s back from the top of our bus, the Arc De Triomphe, a golden flame above the tunnel Princess Diana died in. We found out practically every square used to have public beheadings. Fell in love with Jordan’s 4 Noix cereal (and brought some home). Mom rode the back of a scooter up the street where we stayed, being driven by one of our hosts! My video screened to a huge audience and it went really well. We saw some excellent films, found out that French lesbians learned the word Dandelion from Orange Is The New Black.

It was a good trip! I had some good and bad dreams, good and bad sleeps. Mom is a snorer, so I brought ear plugs, and for the most part when I wore them I was ok. Our plane on the way to Paris was awful, we didn’t have seat back video screens, so we just had to watch whatever was on the main screen, no wifi, no power outlets, ugh! And cramped quarters. But coming back we had a great plane! No wifi or power either, but at least we could pick what we wanted to see. I watched The Clouds of Sils Maria, and Bessie.

Travelling with Mom was a bit weird, especially because she’s got a bad knee so it limited her mobility. But ultimately it was good, because she is more assertive than me and asked strangers questions like how to find Jim Morrison’s grave because we were at Pere Lachaise and had limited time to see it before my roundtable at the festival. Oh yeah, so we saw his grave. It was my second time seeing it. She was good at attempting to talk in French. Mostly we noticed when we tried to talk in French people had no clue what we were saying. Or were being snotty, one or the other.

I had a good time at the festival! I was amazed how many older women attended. They seemed to be people who had attended for many many years. We weren’t really supposed to take pictures, so I didn’t take many there, just a selfie of me in the audience at my screening. I saw a couple of hotties, but I only talked to one, and the other one I just admired from afar.

They put cheese on everything it seems! It got kind of overwhelming! I also started thinking in French, which was a little trippy but not surprising.

Where to next? Well, if I get my script into the script station at Berlinale I’ll go to Berlin in February. I am also going to apply for a residency just outside of Glasgow, Scotland, which would happen next summer. So those are all maybes. I am for sure going to Saskatoon for a month in Dec-Jan. It will be nice to see old friends and my family and Grandpa!

I missed my dogs a lot. But I have a really good dog sitter, Amethyst, so they were in good hands and I wasn’t worried and got cute photos of them now and then.

I got back yesterday around suppertime. Had a good sleep, sent mom to the airport to go back to Saskatoon. Today I picked up mail at the post office, walked pups, ate leftover pizza, and just basked in the happiness of being back home!