When Babar wished his friends Kate, Chloe and Clare, Bon Voyage the other day, he knew exactly how they must have been feeling. Since we returned from the states, Babar has "moved house" to make room for his new friend Henry.
Babar is now living on top of the microwave, under the red lamp with his spoon, our instrument of frothy coffee, my cookbooks, and a book of the six original Babar stories. (Kathleen bought me Bonjour Babar because she thought it was important for me to know a little more about Babar than I did, if I was going to consider myself a Babarmaniac!) Henry is now happily waving from his place of kitchen honor, in the 3-tiered iron mesh basket!
Poor Henry has been tucked away in tissue paper with a lot of my other dolls that are in boxes in my parent's basement. He's happy to be out in the fresh air, and even happier that I put a piece of scotch tape on his tummy to keep his eternally dropping pants from falling down yet
again! I'm a little jealous of Henry. He is actually living in the same iron mesh basket he lived in when we were in New Orleans together! He's a new-comer to France, but he's lucky to be friends with Babar who showed him the international traveling by purple backpack ropes and gladly "moved house" so his new friend can be comfortable and feel a little bit like home in New Orleans, even if it's home in France!
Books and art were the most difficult "things" to part with when I left New Orleans. Cookbooks fell into that category! I parted with most, but managed to bring the ones I loved and were most practical along with me: Southern Living's Microwave Cooking Made Easy; France-The Beautiful Cookbook; Lee Bailey's New Orleans-Good Food and Glorious Houses; The Drag Queen's Cookbook and Guide to Sensible Living; and Toulouse-Lautrec's Table. Bonjour Babar doesn't have any recipes in it, but Babar insisted that I put it nearby so he could enjoy reminiscing from time to time!
It was all very hard! The hardest was watching the contractor who decided to throw all my stuffed animals and anything on the second story OUT the window into the driveway below. Then there was the realization, that even if I gave it away...most people just didn't want my "stuff"...even if it was really nice stuff! I don't plan to go through that again!
Posted by: Laury Bourgeois | June 21, 2009 at 04:19 PM
I can't imagine having to go thru my books and cookbooks to choose only a few to take with me to a new home. It must have been VERY hard!
Posted by: Evelyn Jackson | June 21, 2009 at 02:51 PM