California - Frenchless in France

The Broken Hearted

It turns out that there are many broken hearts in Los Angeles. Some because they came to LA to make it big, some who lost a love along the way.

Nancy and I ate and drank our way across LA. This was the bar of the Penninsula Hotel.

The lobby there.

We had lunch at the Roof Top restaurant. I looked up the history of the hotel while there and it turns out that the horrible movie mogul ,Weinstein, stayed here. The ”me too” movement started with him. Someone who used their position to take sexual advantage of young actresses.

We then went to the Beverly Wilshire Hotel and saw this stunning Ferarri out front.

Their restaurant decoration wasn’t to my taste being too modern and cafeteria like.

The bar. This is where my tale begins. A man was sitting next to us interestingly drinking a margarita along with a beer at the same time. Nancy started talking with him. When I asked him where he was from as he had an accent he said Sweden. He had seen a movie when a teenager, fell in love with it and got himself to Hollywood. After ten years he was able to get a job with the actor in the movie that he had seen years before. Probably because he was on his third set of a margarita and a beer, he started telling us that his younger girlfriend had left him and he was working to get her back. We didn’t think that was going to happen. It seemed to us that she had used him for his money. He was sure he could get her back but hadn’t seen her in two weeks. He was so broken hearted. Nancy gave him some advice and we left and I will always wonder what happened.

Louis

While in LA, my friend Nancy and I went to an exhibit put on by Louis Vuitton. I was expecting more but it turned out to be decorated trunks done by various artists which didn’t do much for me but I loved the building and how it was painted.

The bright exterior.

Isn’t this fabulous?

There was a room full of balloons celebrating the birthday of Louis.

The exhibit was on Rodeo Drive which is full of designer stores such as this one by Dior.

This Bijon store had a matching Rolls Royce out front.

California Dreaming

I was recently in Los Angeles to visit an old friend. We had a blast.

We went to a show at the Hollywood Bowl. The music was a bit weird to me but the lighting was fabulous.

We were served a very good dinner.

We walked from her apartment to the famous Queen Mary. It’s closed for repairs right now.

Closer.

A blow up of the Queen Mary in her heyday. She’s used as a hotel now.

California to Texas

Almost the whole time of my visit to California there was wonderful weather. That’s why so many people want to live there, along with the Pacific Ocean and the beauty.

Many large trees. I love looking up at them. There was a big storm a few weeks ago and a giant sequoia fell, luckily toward the street and not the house. It put out the window of a car parked there. The tree was in the process of being sawed into manageable pieces. It was a huge mess.

So, to get back to Dallas I had to drive from Oakland to the south of California, then across New Mexico and Arizona. There was an all day wind storm and I drove through a lot of blowing sand and dust, luckily not the heavy kind that stops traffic. I finally reached Texas and spent the night. The next morning, it was, as you can see, 21 degrees.

As you can see, there was snow, frost and some snow. It was pretty trecherous to drive through, especially with all of the semis on the highway. I saw seven wrecks on the side of the road and had to wait one hour to get past one as traffic was narrowed down to one lane and onto a feeder road. I never hit any ice but found it in the parking lot and in front of my door when I finally made it home. I’m so glad not to be in a car.

Joshua Tree National Park

On the way to California, in fact as I crossed the border from Arizona into California, I made a stop at this park. It is full of huge boulders and rocky mountains and the Joshua Tree which is a type of yucca or agave.

This is called skull rock although it sort of looks like an alien.

And Finally

I got some great photos in California. It is such a beautiful place but so fragile with the drought. There were ashes on my car most mornings from the fires going on up north and I didn’t see any blue skies the last couple of days. I headed back to Texas for a couple of days and then I will return to Paris.

A lovely house in Carmel.

I met a friend at a very pleasant place for dinner called The Pocket.

She got this good looking hamburger.

Dessert. I sure do take a lot of photos of food.

The patio.

I drove by the pretty beach in Carmel and hopped out for a couple of photos.

Getting close to a sunset.

A good place to say goodbye.

Landing at DFW airport.