Monthly Archives: January 2017

Binge Watching in 2017 #MFRWauthor #Blog Challenge

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I joined the MFRW 2017 Blog Challenge. The idea is to do a themed blog every Friday, and this week’s prompt is “TV Shows I Binge”. Normally I’d have trouble with this prompt because I don’t generally binge watch, except for Outlander.

However, I missed the opening of the fall TV season last year due to being out of the country, so I’ve had no choice but to binge watch in order to catch up on the shows I like. My first choice was Grey’s Anatomy, a show I’ve watched from the beginning, despite its ups and downs. I remember years ago watching a medical show, probably ER, when my husband wandered into the room, saw them operating on someone and said, “Your mother died of a brain tumor and you’re watching this?” I just shrugged. I didn’t point out that I wasn’t the one with a major medical phobia. He wouldn’t have watched under any circumstances.

Next I turned to some of the new shows to see what I liked. My two favorites are Timeless–because time travel!–and Designated Survivor. I love both of these shows. It’s fun to see the characters in Timeless (NBC) hopping from one historical period to another each week while trying to catch the handsome but dastardly Garcia Flynn, played by Goran Visjnic. (Had to look up how to spell his name.) I’ve been in love with Goran since he played Luca in ER. Matt Lanter’s Wyatt isn’t hard to look at either!

US CapitolIf you like complex suspenseful TV shows, Designated Survivor (ABC) is fascinating. Kiefer Sutherland plays Tom Kirkman, the HUD secretary, who is the designated survivor from the president’s cabinet during the State of the Union speech. The idea is to have someone in the line of succession survive in case of catastrophe. In the pilot, the Capitol building suddenly explodes during the inauguration, and Tom is rushed from his “undisclosed location” to the White House where he is sworn in as president. Maggie Q plays an FBI agent who is trying to figure out who blew up the capital, a quest that gets more dangerous the closer she gets to the truth. I can’t wait for the show to start up again.

For laughs, I binge watched The Good Place (NBC) starring Kristen Bell and Ted Danson. Kristin Bell’s character Eleanor died and accidentally ended up in the Good Place instead of the Bad Place. Her attempts to become a better person are hilarious and heartwarming. I’m really enjoying the show.

And lately I binge watched the new show This Is Us, also on NBC. This show is an innovative and heartwarming family drama about the Big Three, a set of twins and their adopted brother, all born on their dad’s birthday. There’s been a lot of critical acclaim for this show, and Chrissy Metz, who plays Kate, was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress. I think she should have won.

And yes, I know this isn’t true binge watching because I didn’t wait for a whole season, but I had to get caught up! I still have a bunch of shows I haven’t watched this season.

What have you been watching, or binge watching lately?

Linda

Click on the linky list below for more binge TV posts.

Musee Carnevalet, Marias District of Paris #TuesdayTravels

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Tuesday Travel buttonAfter lunch on our last free day in Paris, Rebecca and I headed for the Musee Carnevalet in the Marais District of Paris. We found the museum, located in the oldest Renaissance townhouse in the Marais. The logis in the main courtyard has decorative bas-reliefs ofthe four seasons. The statue is of Louis XIV.

Carnevalet logisI’d hoped to do some research specific to the French Revolution, but when we got there we learned that the rooms we needed were closed. In fact, the entire museum was scheduled to close the next day for extensive renovations. Needless to say, I was quite disappointed, but glad we’d made it to the museum at all. The ground floor gallery had some items of interest, including old shop signs and models of Paris in the early years of the 20th century. I loved the 19th century apothecary shopfront. I apologize for the quality of some of these photos. It’s hard to get a good shot when a display is behind glass.

This model shows the Ile de la Cite. You can see Notre Dame on the right.

Model of Ile de la Cite

Model of Ile de la Cite

We were able to look at some of the period rooms on the first floor which is reached via an impressive staircase with a huge mural on the wall above. It always amazes me to see these old homes built on such a grand scale. The Carnevalet was built from 1547-1549 as a residence. Later it became a pension during the early 19th century but was purchased by the government in 1866 and converted to a museum.

muralI loved this blue room. It reminded me of the Regency Room at the Geffrye Museum in London.

blue roomNot sure I’d want to sleep in this bed. It looks a little on the short side! Though I have been told that people used to sleep sitting up rather than lying flat like a corpse. Tempting fate, I suppose.
old bedThe courtyard and garden were very pretty.

Something interesting happened on our walk back to Place de la Bastile. I’d been listening to French language lesson before we left, and I hadn’t been able to make much use of it. Then a French woman stopped us and asked, in French, if we knew where Hotel de Sully was. We’d just passed it on our walk, so I answered her in very simple French. “Oui,” I said, pointing down and across the street. “C’est la bas a droit.” After she left, Rebecca said to me, “I can’t believe you did that.” Have to say, I was pretty proud of myself.

Believe it or not, our day wasn’t finished, but I’ll go into that next time.

Linda