In St. Paul

I am in St. Paul, Minnesota, where the weather is surprisingly (and thankfully) mild. On the way to dinner last night, we drove past Summit Terrace, the home of Francis Scott Fitzgerald, and the place where he supposedly rewrote This Side of Paradise. There are several homes associated with Fitzgerald in the area, and I hope at least one of them will be open for visits.

As I was getting ready for bed, I noticed a thick book on the shelf beneath the nightstand; it was a 1920 edition of Old French Fairy Tales by the Comtesse de Ségur. I grew up reading de Ségur in Morocco, so it was strange yet wonderful to encounter her characters in English, in a bed-and-breakfast in St. Paul, of all places.