la_marquise: (Marquise)
la_marquise ([personal profile] la_marquise) wrote2012-07-05 09:48 pm

Au coeur du Lyon?

We are all, I suppose, getting older. But I, as you may know, am an ageing baggage whose skirts are occasionally Too Short and who will insist on dyeing her hair. (Right now I'm brunette. I felt like a change.) It seems that while I get older in body, I remain frivolous at core (well, at part of my core, anyway).
And in oh-help-just-over-a-week, I have a landmark birthday. A birthday, indeed, that my PhD supervisor once informed me was the beginning of old age. I seem to remember saying 'Bah humbug' to that at the time, and I still think it. But all the same...
The marquis, who as we know is wonderful in almost every possible respect, decided that I should have some kind of special celebration. So he's taking me to Lyon for a long weekend with flowers and champagne and traboules.
Being me, I am particularly excited about the traboules. I've spent the night in Lyon twice, but on neither occasion was there time or opportunity to see the city. I've wanted to see it for many years, since that first visit when I was 14 or 15. And now I'm getting to go. (Eurostar permitting. Those of you who know me well will know I'm a claustrophobe and I'm particularly antsy about tunnels. They catch fire. I know this. I told them so in advance.) We're off tomorrow morning and back late on Sunday. I am taking my posh dress and high heels and, yes, the laptop, because I have a deadline.
I am so looking forward to this. Because, you know, traboules. (And Roman remains and architecture ranging from the 12th to the 19th c. and silk weaving and, well, traboules. Yes, I am a bit fixated on those traboules. I've seen them elsewhere, but these are the really famous ones.)

This means that this year we are not having our usual summer party. (Various people have asked.) We are hoping to have one in the autumn, work permitting.

Skirt of the day: long burgundy silky.

[identity profile] gillpolack.livejournal.com 2012-07-06 12:46 am (UTC)(link)
Can't you go to Eastercon and then somehow end up in Lyon?

[identity profile] gillpolack.livejournal.com 2012-07-06 12:49 am (UTC)(link)
Have a lovely time. (And Medieval definitions of age are ones you should follow, and you're not even close to being old.)

[identity profile] miintikwa.livejournal.com 2012-07-06 03:10 am (UTC)(link)
Squee! Enjoy! :D

[identity profile] difrancis.livejournal.com 2012-07-06 03:51 am (UTC)(link)
That sounds absolutely lovely and I have envy and can I come???

Enjoy!

[identity profile] lil-shepherd.livejournal.com 2012-07-06 04:16 am (UTC)(link)
Considering what the weather has been like you would be wise to wait for autumn even if you were not having a 'landmark' birthday. I'm way, way older than you and I don't feel in the least bit grown up, which I'm not. (Despite having spent some time this week and last consulting my 'financial advisor'. Well, originally Ina's and now mine as well.)

[identity profile] anna-wing.livejournal.com 2012-07-06 04:33 am (UTC)(link)
It sounds like a wonderful idea and I hope that you have a nice time and a happy birthday.

One should celebrate every birthday with joy, since it means that you have, against all odds, lived another year. Not everyone gets to do that.

[identity profile] klwilliams.livejournal.com 2012-07-06 05:23 am (UTC)(link)
I think our plan is to go to Eastercon, then hie to Newcastle for our English reception at the Lit and Phil. Then I abandon Chaz for a couple of weeks to his British friends and come back to Sunnyvale to go to work.

[identity profile] ex-triciasu.livejournal.com 2012-07-06 06:12 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, what a marvellous, excellent and wonderful plan! Have a properly decadent and indulgent birthday!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY in advance!
korintomichi: (Default)

[personal profile] korintomichi 2012-07-06 06:12 am (UTC)(link)
Happy birthday. And have a wonderful time.

[identity profile] cmcmck.livejournal.com 2012-07-06 07:09 am (UTC)(link)
From one aging baggage to another then (and yes, my hair is coloured :o) have a hippo birdie in advance. I think I've passed most of the birthdays which could be considered young and am growing middle aged disgracefully- although I haven't started wearing purple yet!

Lyon is a lovely city and trabouling is great fun. Don't miss the statue of St'Ex and le petit Prince down on the lower square- there are a number of nice restaurants down that way too.

[identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/ 2012-07-06 07:51 am (UTC)(link)
We promise to look after him.

[identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/ 2012-07-06 07:52 am (UTC)(link)
Well, we will be at WFC, so I can promise it won't be then.

[identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/ 2012-07-06 07:52 am (UTC)(link)
O, thank you. We'll look for it.

[identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/ 2012-07-06 07:53 am (UTC)(link)
Indeed you did: thank you.

[identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/ 2012-07-06 07:53 am (UTC)(link)
Of course you can!

[identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/ 2012-07-06 07:54 am (UTC)(link)
You are not a bit old.
I just read The Quibell Abduction and loved it and have Thoughts, btw. (Did you write The Haunting of Haderon? I loved that, but sadly lost my copy years ago.)

[identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/ 2012-07-06 07:54 am (UTC)(link)
That is very true.

[identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/ 2012-07-06 07:55 am (UTC)(link)
Thank you: I'll look out for them.

[identity profile] lil-shepherd.livejournal.com 2012-07-06 08:29 am (UTC)(link)
Tell me that when I wake up, crawl out of bed, take my pills like a good person (which reminds me...) and try to get Bren to go down to the garden. I'm just not grown up....

Yes, I wrote The Haunting of Haderon. I've just checked and I don't appear to have kept the digital copy I edited when [livejournal.com profile] watervole reprinted it as part of a multi-author zine a while back, but I do have a copy of said zine somewhere and will lend it to you if you like. (I'm not so upset about not keeping the digital copy of that as I am about the digital copy of The Machiavelli Factor which I very much want to put on AO3 and will now probably have to scan... all 200,000 or so words of it. Bugger.)

So I now have over 20,000 words of Avengers fan fiction when I should be writing something else entirely, and it looks like coming out around 40,000...

Oh, and HAVE A GREAT TIME. (I passed through Lyons on a tour bus a long time ago and was impressed.)
Edited 2012-07-06 08:31 (UTC)

[identity profile] coth.livejournal.com 2012-07-06 08:39 am (UTC)(link)
Good for the Marquis. I had to google traboules - but they sound fascinating, so enjoy. And we'll hope for an autumn party.

Happy Birthday!

[identity profile] bellinghwoman.livejournal.com 2012-07-06 09:03 am (UTC)(link)
Happy birthday, and have a great time!

[identity profile] lil-shepherd.livejournal.com 2012-07-06 09:24 am (UTC)(link)
Thoughts?????

[identity profile] aliettedb.livejournal.com 2012-07-06 09:34 am (UTC)(link)
ooooh, have an awesome time in Lyon! And happy birthday in advance.
In the unlikely event you have some time to kill in Paris, shoot me an email, but I imagine you and the marquis will have a full schedule :)
ext_12726: (cup of tea)

[identity profile] heleninwales.livejournal.com 2012-07-06 10:10 am (UTC)(link)
Happy birthday in advance from me too. I had to Google traboules, but they look fascinating. Tunnels and secret ways always have an air of mystery, even if they were totally mundane when built.

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