Nice, France. Amy’s Graduation

Thursday, Sep 3: I woke up to loud street noises at 6:00 AM, then fell back asleep until 9:45 AM, still working through some jet lag. Kathleen went for a run, Amy had an appointment, then the two of them went grocery shopping while I walked around Nice’s Old Town, established during the Middle Ages. Amy had another meeting in the afternoon, so Kathleen and I ate lunch outside around the corner at Restaurant La Claire Fontaine, across a small square from the Cathedral Sainte-Reparte de Nice. 

We met Amy in the evening at La Tresorerie near the Nice-Ville train station. Amy and four of her classmates, nicknamed “The Grandmas,” for their low-key leisure habits, arranged a happy hour in a private room for the graduates and their families to meet before tomorrow’s official ceremony. We had a marvelous time, socializing with the international group of students, relatives and friends: Mathilda from Sweden, Lena from Switzerland, Laura from Germany and Gabriella from Columbia. The air was abuzz with English, German, Swedish, Spanish and French, with most everyone fluent in more than one language. Later, Kathleeen and Amy went for a sunset swim in the Mediterranean Sea, meeting several of Amy’s classmates at the beach. Map link: Nice, France

Bonus Question: True or False? The hidden object book Where’s Waldo? was once banned. (answer at end of post) 

Friday, Sep 4:  We passed another lazy morning, then went for a swim in the Mediterranean, followed by shopping at the Cours Saleya outdoor market, which sells flowers and produce in the morning and transforms into a clothing, jewelry, crafts and souvenirs market at night. We ate lunch at our Airbnb—a third-floor walkup apartment right in the heart of Old Town—then Amy left to get ready for her graduation ceremony. 

Later, Kathleen and I dressed up and took the local tram to the Centre Universitaire Mediterraneen (CUM) on the waterfront, where the 34 graduates of the MARRES program at the Universite Cote de Azur would receive their master’s degrees. Graduation ceremonies with lots of pageantry are uncommon in Europe, and it was delightful to see the French version of this important milestone. After the official ceremony (in English, as were Amy’s classes), we celebrated with a glass of champagne before reconvening for an entertaining, student-run program. This was followed by a short walk to Blue Beach, an oceanfront restaurant, where a delicious buffet, unlimited wine and dancing awaited us. Kathleen and I left around 11:00 PM with the party in full swing, and we walked back to our lodgings along the busy promenade on a lovely evening.

Bonus Question Answer: True. The original 1987 book Where’s Waldo? was banned in 1997 in certain New York school districts. One of the search puzzles is a beach scene in which a woman appears topless, and complaints from parents led to the book being banned from school libraries. See below.

Paris and Nogent-sur-Marne, France

Kathleen and I returned to Europe, this time for Amy’s graduation from the Université Côte d’Azur in Nice, France. We decided to spend a couple of days in Paris visiting family before meeting Amy on the French Riviera later in the week. 

Sunday, Aug 30: Our 8:00 PM flight on Air France was crowded, but comfortable enough during the 8-hour trip, albeit with little sleep and a 7-hour time change.

Monday, Aug 31: We landed at 11:15 AM, Paris time, cleared immigration (all biometric, no agent contact), picked up our luggage, then took an Uber to our niece’s apartment in Nogent-sur-Marne east of Paris. We visited Marjorie, husband Murli, son Nathan and daughter Pia, in December for the holidays and had a wonderful time (post link: Nogent-sur-Marne, 12/31/25). Marjorie walked us down the street to meet her neighbor, Katherine, a Swiss woman living in Nogent who often hosts visitors and agreed to put us up for our two nights in town. She showed us to her third floor bedroom, where we napped, then walked in a brief rain shower to the nearby apartment of Kathleen’s sister Elizabeth and her husband, David. We were pleasantly surprised to see Maria, Liz and David’s younger daughter and Marjorie’s sister, visiting from Atlanta. We stayed with Maria and her husband Mike at their Brookhaven, GA, home in February before flying to Honduras (post link: Atlanta, GA, 2/17/26). Pia and Nathan were also there, and we spent the remainder of the afternoon chatting before walking back to Marjorie’s. Most of us ate dinner at Giacomo, a neighborhood Italian restaurant where Marjorie’s family is well-known. We finally made it to bed at 11:00 PM, jet-lagged and exhausted but happy. Map link: Nogent-sur-Marne, France

This dragonfly welcomed us at Katherine’s

Tuesday, Sep 1: We woke up at 7:05 AM, showered, dressed then ate breakfast with Katherine, enjoying fresh figs from her backyard. We took the train to Paris and ate second breakfast at Café du Rendez-Vous on a perfect day, grateful that we missed the heat wave that plagued Europe last week. We had a 10:45 reservation to see the Catacombs of Paris, the world’s largest underground ossuary, which is a repository for human skeletal remains. The Catacombs began as a rich limestone deposit on the left (southern) bank of the Seine, and was quarried for centuries, leaving a network of unmarked and largely forgotten tunnels and caverns below ground. As Paris expanded, buildings were eventually constructed on top of these old quarries and a series of cave-ins and collapses in the 1770s led to a major public works project to map and shore up more than 175 miles of these cavities. Also during the late 18th century, Paris was facing a public health crisis from overcrowded cemeteries in close proximity to population centers—one cave-in emptied a mass grave into neighboring cellars. It was decided to create an underground graveyard, and the remains of more than six million people were exhumed and relocated to the tunnels over a two-year period. They opened to public viewing in 1809 and remain wildly popular, with slots selling out as soon as they become available—we only got tickets by booking a package tour with a Seine River cruise. Map link: Catacombs of Paris

We took the Metro to Port de la Conférence, for the river tour part of our package aboard the Bateau Mouches (“fly boat”). Our niece, Rachel, who studies at nearby American University, was finished with classes for the day and met us at the dock, then joined us for the cruise, a tour inside Notre-Dame Cathedral and lunch at La Crème de Paris Notre-Dame. Since reopening in late 2024 following a catastrophic 2019 fire, an estimated 30,000-40,000 visitors tour Paris’ most famous church each day, and minor exterior and artistic restoration work continues. Getting inside the cathedral was a must-do for this trip, after long lines and cold weather dampened our enthusiasm back in December. Kathleen made reservations in the morning, and we only waited 10 minutes in line. On the way back to Nogent, we made a quick stop at Les Halles mall, then went to Marjorie’s for dinner, which was Indian food cooked by Vasanthi, Murli’s mom, who lives with them for half the year. We got back to Katherine’s at 10:00 PM, packed for tomorrow’s travel, and went to bed. Map link: Notre-Dame Cathedral of Paris

Compulsory Eiffel Tower photo

Scaffolding from ongoing restoration is visible
in the windows 

Bonus Question: I made a Connections puzzle! Sort the following 16 words into four groups of related items (answers at the end of post):

Barouche, Montecristo, Anvil, Elba 

Landau, Kelpie, Hammer, Giglio

Chimera, Brougham, Pianosa, Griffin

Stirrup, Wendigo, Cabriolet, Cochlea

Wednesday, Sep 2: Kathleen was up early (my snoring woke her up), then we showered, packed up and said goodbye and thank you to Katherine for her outstanding hospitality. We left our luggage at Marjorie’s, then took Pia—who doesn’t have school on Wednesdays—to Karamela pastry shop, where we bought croissants and pain Suisse (actually French, not Swiss), then spent the rest of the morning at Elizabeth and David’s. At Noon we picked up spring rolls for lunch at Laka, then took the train from Nogent-sur-Marne to the Gare du Lyon in Paris. There we weaved our way through the busy station and boarded the high-speed train to Marseilles, averaging more than 140 mph over the 475-mile trip. I’d always wanted to see the French countryside by train and it did not disappoint, although many parts looked parched from the heat and drought. We changed trains in Marseilles, with enough time to get dinner, then watched the sun set over the Mediterranean Sea as we took a local train to Nice, arriving at 10:00 PM. After a short taxi ride and a winding walk—the streets and alleys in Vieux Nice (Old Town) are too narrow for cars—we met Amy at our third-floor AirBnb in the busy heart of the city. We had a fair bit of noise coming in through the window, but all quickly fell asleep. 

Gare de Lyon

Bonus Question Answer:  Stirrup, Hammer, Anvil, Cochlea: Parts of the inner ear.

Barouche, Brougham, Cabriolet, Landau: Types of horse-drawn carriages.

Chimera, Griffin, Kelpie, Wendigo: Mythical creatures or spirits.

Elba, Pianosa, Montecristo, Giglio: Islands in the Tuscan Archipelago.

Indianapolis, IN

Kathleen and I visited Danielle and Jay at their new home in Indianapolis last weekend. After earning her Masters in Public Health from Boston University in May (post link: Boston, MA: May 18, 2026), Danielle got a job with the Indiana Department of Health’s tuberculosis testing laboratory, and she and Jay now live in the Springdale neighborhood on the city’s northeast side.

Indianapolis is the state’s capital and largest city, with a population of 900,000 and a metropolitan area of more than 2 million people. The city was established in 1821 as a planned community to replace the previous state capital in Corydon, and laid out as a one square-mile grid on the White River. Indianapolis is home to the Indy 500 automobile race, Eli Lilly pharmaceuticals company, multiple museums, arts venues, sports teams and claims to have more monuments and memorials than any other U.S. city outside of Washington, D.C. Map link: Indianapolis, IN

Thursday, Aug 20:  Kathleen’s brother, Tony, dropped us off at MSP Airport’s Terminal 2 for our afternoon flight. While we’ve usually enjoyed flying on Sun Country Airlines, this was our first flight since they were acquired by Allegiant Travel in May, and they definitely didn’t have their act together. Our flight was delayed when the previous plane at our gate was waiting on crew. Our incoming plane, full of passengers, was forced to sit on the tarmac until they finally got permission to dock at the adjacent gate. There was massive confusion in the overcrowded gate area, with few announcements from Sun Country agents and no updates on the monitors. It all worked out in the end, but we were not impressed, and landed 50 minutes late in Indianapolis. Jay picked us up, then we met Danielle and Kathleen's sister Therese, her husband, Doug, and their younger daughter, Charlotte, who were passing through that evening on their way to Indiana University in Bloomington to move Charlotte in for her sophomore year of college. We had a marvelous meal at Daisy Bar in an old industrial building rebranded as the Factory Arts, then went our separate ways. 

Bonus Question: True or False? Giraffes are more likely than other animals to be struck by lightning (answer at end of post).

Friday, Aug 20: I slept until 7:45 AM, then spent a relaxing morning at the house. Kathleen and I borrowed the car and drove into downtown to the Statehouse, built from Indiana limestone and white oak and completed in 1888, under budget at a cost $1.8 million. A highlight is the beautiful stained glass dome in the rotunda, 105 feet above the main floor. 

It was a lovely day, with temperatures in the mid-80s, sunny skies and moderate humidity, and we walked from the capitol to the Canal Walk, a 1.5-mile waterfront promenade through Downtown Indianapolis. Originally part of the planned Indiana Central Canal, begun in 1836 during the canal craze following the 1825 opening of the Erie Canal, the waterway was intended to stretch 296 miles from the Wabash and Erie Canal all the way to the Ohio River. After the Panic of 1837, a financial crisis that triggered a multi-year depression, the state went bankrupt and only eight miles of the canal project were ever completed. The section from White River State Park to 11th Street has been preserved as a recreational and cultural destination, with walking paths, rental boats and gondolas for hire. Kathleen and I had lunch along the canal at Fresco Italian Cafe, enjoying the weather and the passing entertainment.

On the north end of the Canal Walk is a memorial to the USS Indianapolis, a Navy heavy cruiser launched in 1931. In July 1945, it delivered the enriched uranium and other key components for the first atomic bomb to Tinian Naval Base in the Mariana Islands. After leaving Tinian, the ship was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine and sank in less than 12 minutes. Of the 1,195 sailors and marines aboard, about 900 survived the sinking, but hundreds succumbed to exposure, dehydration and shark attacks. The Navy was unaware of the incident for four days, until a passing patrol plane happened upon the wreckage. Only 316 of the crew were rescued, and the Indianapolis remains the largest single-ship loss of life in U.S. Navy history. 

My arthritic right hip was acting up, so we returned to Jay and Danielle’s for a power nap and hang-out time, followed by dinner at home, Danielle’s (second) birthday celebration, ice cream at LiftOff Creamery and Jeopardy on TV.

Saturday, Aug 22: I woke up after 7:00 AM, the last one out of bed for the second straight day. Kathleen and Danielle went to the local farmer’s market, then to the gym, while I read and wrote. In the afternoon, we drove into Downtown Indianapolis again to visit the Kurt Vonnegut Museum & Library, inadvertently stumbling upon heavy traffic following a Colts’ pre-season football game at nearby Lucas Oil Stadium. 

Born and raised in Indianapolis, author Kurt Vonnegut was known for his dark, satirical work over his fifty year career. His parents and grandparents were prominent German-American entrepreneurs, who lost everything during Prohibition and The Great Depression, a possible contributor to his mother’s suicide on the night before Mother’s Day. Vonnegut dropped out of Cornell University in 1943 to enlist in the U.S. Army, and fought in Europe until he was captured at the Battle of the Bulge in 1944. His breakout novel, Slaughterhouse-Five, was based on his personal experience as a prisoner in Germany during the 1945 fire-bombing of Dresden, where he and fellow POWs survived by hiding in an underground meat locker, then were put to work excavating bodies from the rubble. He struggled as a writer for twenty years—even selling cars to pay the bills—until Slaughterhouse-Five became a best-seller in 1969, when Vonnegut was 47. He was hailed as an anti-war hero, a champion against censorship and book banning, and would go on to publish a total of 14 novels, three short-story collections, five plays and five nonfiction works. Kurt Vonnegut died in Manhattan in 2007 at the age of 84. 

Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library

We strolled back to our car along the Canal Walk, stopping at the Indiana 911 Memorial, then rested at home before walking to the Feast of Lanterns, an annual Springdale neighborhood festival held in Spades Park. The event began in 1898 and moved to Spades Park in 1909. It was halted during World War II before being revived in the early 2000s, with electric lights replacing candles in the paper lanterns strung up throughout the park and on nearby homes. The evening’s weather was perfect and the festival was very well attended, with long lines at the food and beverage trucks, a large crowd checking out the dozens of craft tents and another crowd camped out in front of the stage listening to live music. Map link: Spades Park, Indianapolis

Sunday, Aug 23: After breakfast, we returned to Downtown Indianapolis, encountering moderate traffic near the Indianapolis Fringe Festival and Indianapolis Indians minor league baseball game. Our destination was Monument Circle, where the 16th annual Indianapolis India Day was being held. Celebrating the 80th anniversary of India’s independence from Great Britain in 1947, the event took place on another gorgeous day, with the 285-foot limestone memorial to Indiana veterans as a majestic backdrop. We got lunch from one of the Indian food vendors, perused the craft tents, then listened to speeches and watched the dancers on stage—mostly children’s dance troupes cheered on by family and friends. Map link: Monument Circle, Indianapolis

Next we drove a short distance to the Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site, located at the former home of our 23rd President. Grandson of Indiana’s first Territorial Governor and the 9th U.S. President, William Henry Harrison, and great-grandson of Benjamin Harrison V, a former Virginia governor and signer of the Declaration of Independence, he was born in Ohio in 1833, and moved to Indianapolis at age 20 with his new bride, Caroline, to practice law. Harrison served in the Union Army during the Civil War, and ran unsuccessfully for Indiana Governor before being elected to the U.S. Senate and later defeating incumbent President Grover Cleveland in 1888. Highlights of his administration included the addition of six western states to the country, tariffs and other protectionist trade measures, increased government spending (the federal budget hit $1 billion for the first time) and the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. Caroline died of tuberculosis just weeks before the 1892 election and Harrison lost his reelection bid to Cleveland, becoming the only president to lose to their immediate predecessor, and Cleveland became the first president to be elected to non-consecutive terms. He died in 1901 at the age of 67, in the home that we toured. Map link: Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site

Back in Springdale, we watched Monica, O My Darling, a Hindi dark comedy movie that Danielle and Jay recommended (we liked it too), ate dinner at home, played CATAN, with Seafarers Expansion, watched Taskmaster on television, then read until bedtime. 

Bonus Quote: “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity”—Hanlon’s razor

Monday, Aug 24: We set an alarm for 7:00 AM in order to say goodbye to Danielle before she biked to work. Jay drove us to the airport, then we did another Sun Country Airlines shuffle as a departing plane was at our gate and we boarded next door. We were only 10-15 minutes late in leaving, and we didn’t really care. Also, the plane wasn’t full, so Kathleen and I had a row to ourselves, raising our spirits. The 85-minutes flight was over quickly, then we Ubered home and unpacked. It was a terrific trip to Indy, that we hope to repeat soon. 

Bonus Question Answer: True. While fatalities are rare, giraffes are statistically more likely to be struck by lightning. Their height, between 14-19 feet, make them natural lightning rods on the savannahs and plains that they inhabit. On a per-capita basis, studies have shown a 30x higher rate of giraffe strikes versus humans.