"It's not where you've been but where you're going!"

My Background

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  1. I am the father of a beautiful, curious and loving son, Christopher Paris

    What I love most about him is his loving disposition.

    He is also very curious and has an imagination brimming with all sorts of characters, situations, questions, and adventures.

  2. I am mostly of French heritage. My ancestors lived in a Paris neighborhood (faubourg) across the River Seine from the Eiffel Tower known as Fauberg Chaillot, pronounced Shy-YO. It's on a hill (Butte Chaillot)that is one of the highest natural points in Paris. The Arc De Triomphe was built on a spot in Fauberg Chaillot once called L'Etoile, because many paths crossed there. The famous boulevard Les Champs Elysees starts here.

    Le Palais de Chaillot, across the river Seine from the Eiffel Tower, is where the United Nations meets when it's in town. It's also where legendary French film director Francois Trufaut's cinema archives are located, as well as the French Maritime Museum.

    The Chaillot section of Paris sits on a hill (Butte de Chaillot) and is the prime vantage point for photos of the Eiffel Tower and the River Seine when you want them pictured together.

  3. I am also part "Cajun", having grown up in Louisiana. My HOMETOWN: Crowley, which is exactly half way between HOUSTON and NEW ORLEANS on Interstate 10, just west of Lafayette. Crowley's an especially pretty little community of 20,000+ people with about 1000 century-old oaks and many Victorian mansions lining it's shady streets. I've always thought our town's slogan should be:

    "Crowley: Louisiana's Victorian City of a Thousand Oaks."

    It's worth a visit if you love old homes and older trees. If you go, say HI to Mayor Isabella de la Houssaye! She is our first distaff Mayor and has done a fabulous job.

  4. But I am also very much in love with my adopted home states where I have lived: Oregon, Washington and before that, Texas.

    In Texas, I like the hill country north of San Antonio the best, but I also love and have taught and wrote for a living in deep east Texas, north of HOUSTON

    In the Pacific Northwest, I enjoyed the foothills of the Cascade Mountain Range, the Olympic Peninsula, the Puget Sound area, the Colombia River Gorge, the Willamette Valley and other locales where I lived.

  5. I am the oldest of eight children born to a pure (100%)Cajun Mom and a French (50%) Irish (37%) German (13%) Dad. Growing up in a home where 12 people lived (Grandma and Granpa were right next door) was a hurricane of activity!

    If you want some idea of what it was like, watch the old classic film AND the new release of the movie titled Cheaper by the Dozen. The dozen was true because my maternal grandparents (Lillian and Joseph, or "J.E.", as he was called) lived right next door. We were lucky that way.

    My childhood was mostly idyllic, full of real and imagined adventures of all sorts and richly peopled by characters from both within my family and elsewhere.

    Though all families have their struggles, and we certainly had (and still have) our share, I've always felt very privileged to have had the childhood I did.

    I credit Mom ("Alice" - was librarian and is now deceased) and Dad ( "Lionel" - a store owner, now 80 ) for most of that, as well as my 3 brothers

    - Ernest (a gourmand & a food writer; he's completed a three-week trip to China as one of the highlights of his journalism career

    - Brian ( a harmonica player/musician whose group has a new CD out & who is also a great cook ), and

    - Jordy (an actor and a paralegal) and 4 sisters:

    - Marie (a portrait and fine arts photographer and jeweler; order your portraits and jewelery now from www.hiddenwomen.com !),

    - Lian (an abstractor & outdoorswoman) who lives among the mountains of Colorado,

    - Ella (a teacher of teachers who is our family's "baby!"

    & Claire [a registered nurse, who, along with children Matti and Harri, live in Australia].

    They are ALL good dancers, good cooks, born storytellers and fabulous siblings, fun to be around, never boring or bored with life!

    Other influences were, of course, numerous cousins (too many to name), and friends, and others who were part of my neighborhood, community & all of "Acadiana" (a collection of 8 "Parishes" (counties) with Lafayette at its hub), in south central Louisiana, schools and church.

    My extended family now includes nephews

    - Emile (b 8/21/80) who is a chef, David (b 9/1/81) also in food service industry, Patrick (b 6/26/85)ALSO in food service industry, and Rouge (b 4/26/88)an accomplished skateboarder, & nieces Gine (b 2/21/83) now serving in Iraq with the Army, her son Sebby (Born Aug 7, 2003, he is the first of the great-grandchildren) Mattie (b 11/28/97) and Harri (b 12/5/99).

    As you can see, teaching, food, and the fine arts, as well as a love of an active outdoor life, run in my family!

    Any or all of these folks make for an interesting family gathering, though it has been awhile since we were all together (I think it was for Dad's 75th birthday in 2000).

    I wish we could all get together more often. I miss them. Love ya'll!

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