Café Letters: Here's what's really going on

So I sent a Paris Letter to my great aunt. She was in a nursing home and I thought she could use some fun mail. She read the letter, turned to my cousin and said, "Nice letter. I wonder what's really going on."

Fair enough.

Then my grandma sent me a letter and wrote that it seems I've been doing "just okay." Hmmm. I wonder where she got that idea.I've been rather silent regarding my new fancy life in Canada. It's a big deal to make a big move. Since autumn I have swung like a pendulum between grief and relief. Grief over the friends and beauty of Paris I left behind, and relief at not having to put up with Paris ridiculousness. I never really talk about the dark side of living in Paris because I don't want to crack the shiny veneer of your sunlit Parisian fantasies.

Paris: It requires a lot of pushing.

And I'm not just talking about the shopping baskets shoved in your behind by les vieilles at Fran Prix.My aunt passed away this month and took all her great stories with her. I thought to honor her I would finally write letters about what is really going on in my life these days.I went to the local lilac festival last week. I imagined it to be big bouquets of lilacs for sale, the smell wafting down the street. In reality there were a lot of junky jewelry booths and plenty of brochures to deny. Nary a lilac in sight.Dismay. A few Paris Letters ...Theme: Bookstores in Paris.

Theme: Mozart in Vienna.

 Update:These letters ended up in the great finale Dear Paris: The Paris Letters Collection. If you really REALLY want to find out what has been going on, you'll find it inside the pages of Dear Paris.