More work in progress.

Work in progress.

Found it! A long-chased melody has finally being identified, it was much harder and took me much longer than the 2003 doit hunt despite being a pretty obvious and famous reference once I got it. Tough case, as Peter Falk aka Columbo put it in Der Himmel über Berlin. Back in the days when I lived full-time at the cottage I came across the melody on the Radio, believing that this was the signature tune of some bedtime stories for kids. And this is where the troubles identifying that melody started, it was actually belonging to Laure Adler’s L’Heure bleue. Today I closed the case thanks to a Le Quotidien interrupting TV commercial for Chanel’s N°5, and from there everything quickly led to Daft Punk’s Veridis Quo!

One anniversary this is: twenty years ago I moved to France (thanks to a 13-hour ride-sharing trip from Neustadt to Bordeaux all across the country with little to no highways… hail to student budgets). Except for some 6 months traveling around Eastern Europe (2010) and a little over a year of Pittsburgh (2018/19), I’ve been living in France ever since. January 13 has an additional vibe to it, since it turned into my birthday for many years thanks to Facebook’s virality.

It’s 2025, and entering the new year was much fun! We had a crowd of 20 people at the cottage, making those days flying by way too fast. Back in Pantin now, back into my routine, and pretty close to Jan 13: my twentieth anniversary of having arrived in France! Effi seems to grow faster than time goes by, she’s walking all around the place while letting out yells of joy. She’s pretty determined and picky when it comes to food: waving her arm when she dislikes something and pointing at what she likes, and obviously: the more, the better. When Max was her age we dragged him down under, meeting uncle Adam and all the beauty that Australia has to offer. It’s fun to browse through the pictures and compare both kids, they’re so different while being so similar.