Farewell dear Naomi ...

My friend Naomi has left us, she died on July 30, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. Naomi Caryl Hirshhorn was 91 years old, born on June 27, 1931. I'm very sad but I'd like this post not to be somber, but to celebrate her life.

Along the years I wrote several posts about my friend Naomi - you can click on "Naomi" on the right side of my blog and see them. I explained her childhood, family, career, art and more. I visited her childhood home in Great Neck, Long Island, New York and also her home in Los Angeles in the Hollywood Hills. There are several photos of them in my previous posts. Naomi was a very special person, talented, creative, generous, fun and lovable. (Click on collage to enlarge.)

Naomi accomplished a great deal during her long life. She was a composer and lyricist and sang on Broadway when she was young. She made records and she and her music were featured in a CBS television "special" and were nominated for an Emmy. Her talent covered many areas in art, music and entertainment.

She appeared as an actress and singer on several television shows. She was also an artist, working in acrylic and pastel. Her art was exhibited in several large cities in the country. She told me she had made about 2000 drawings and 850 paintings - see example below.

A famous artist friend of hers, Morris Broderson (1928-2011) even painted a standing portrait of her.

For about ten years she had a blog where she would show photos of her succulent garden, her parties and more. Her posts were always interesting, informative and fun. She had a free spirit.

Unfortunately when she was young she suffered a terrible illness of the lungs - bronchiectasis. With the years it worsened and she had to stay indoors most of the time. But even in her confinement she enjoyed nature around her. Her house was on the Hollywood Hill, hanging out cantilever style. From her balcony she could see the city below, with an incredible view that would not quit, seeing all the way to the sea on a clear day.

She delighted in watching the birds flying to her outdoor balcony as well as the many wild animals walking in the hills below her house.

Naomi was knowledgeable in all aspects of show business. She saw many new films at home on DVD's because of her affiliation with the Screen Actors Guild (and was on the Film Nominating Committee.) On her blog she would give good critiques of the films. Along her long career she had met many well known actors, such as Paul Newman, and would share anecdotes on them. She never married but had a large circle of friends. For years she doted on her beautiful white cat "Sweetie." I did pet him, and his fur was the softest ever.

Naomi was very social and many friends and family came to her home for luncheons and parties. She would set up an attractive table with delicate china and her favorite blue crystal goblets.

Loving nature, Naomi was fond of gardens but when she no longer could visit them she would surround herself with stunning flower arrangements.

With the passing of years many of her old friends started falling ill or died. It caused her much grief. Her health deteriorated as well and she could no long type on her computer or move easily. Watching the formation of the clouds from her balcony and the colors of the sun was still a joy. She always had a great sense of humor and a sharp mind, but alas, an uncooperative body.

In 2020 I was supposed to fly to California to visit my San Francisco friend George then go down to Los Angeles to visit Naomi - COVID in the US cancelled all my plans (and George died last year.) On her telephone, Naomi would not "speak" a call back message, she would sing it "Speak to me ...and I will listen to you ..." I shall miss our long telephone conversations; now I'll cherish their memories. Rest well, my dear Naomi.

"The song is ended, but the melody lingers on..." - Irving Berlin (American composer, 1888-1989.)

My friend Naomi Caryl - part 2

In the first part of my post I shared that Naomi's family had a working farm in the Pennsylvania hills built in the 1930s and called Huckleberry Hill Farm; they spent happy times there.  Naomi's father Joseph H. Hirshhorn was a shrewd investor and by August 1929 feeling very uneasy about the stock market he sold all his shares for several millions.  The Wall Street Crash started a month later in September 1929 in what was to be The Great Depression.  The family had another holiday house in Miami Beach, Florida.  Miami Beach had started to become a vacation spot for the wealthy - the era when its Art Deco district was developed.  Naomi recalled how her father, Daddy Joe, would love to spend time at the Everglades Cabana Club while Naomi would stay at the swimming pool there.  Below vintages postcards of the Everglades Cabana Club swimming pool.  (Click on collage to enlarge.)

The pool was next door to the Roney Plaza Hotel.  Opened in 1925, it was the first grand beachfront resort of Miami Beach and attracted a cosmopolitan crowd from Hollywood stars to the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.  It was the "in" place to be, be seen and have fun (it was demolished in 1968.)  Below vintage postcards showing the atmosphere then.

The Hirshhorn's family's house was located on North Bay road, looking out onto Biscayne Bay.  They would spend the winter months there where Naomi and her siblings would attend school.

Following my research instinct I looked for the house and, eureka, I found it.  It is on the market as a "rental" with 4,467 sq ft, 7 bedrooms, 5 baths, a pool and private deck with bay waterfront and views of downtown.  Right now it is listed with a seasonal monthly rate of $45,000 and a $18,000 security deposit.  Anyone interested in renting it?  It is owned by the founder and CEO of Green Plant a large Florida juice processing plant (4 million bottles of juice per month.)  Here are photos offered on the rental site.

Unfortunately Naomi's parents separated and the family did not go back to Huckleberry Hill Farm or the Miami Beach home.  They divorced several years later and the properties were sold.  The farm was sold to the Kress family, owners of the S. H. Kress & Co., variety stores.  Naomi and her siblings stayed with their mom in the Great Neck home on Long Island Shore, NY.  This is where she attended school.  Later on she studied acting, music and singing.  She had an outstanding voice and made several records.  She also sang in night clubs for a while but did not like the atmosphere.

 Naomi was an "apprentice" in Summer Stock at the Sea Cliff Theatre in Sea Cliff New York.  As an actress her first paying job was in the Sea Cliff original production of "A Streetcar named Desire" by Tennessee Williams.  She was casted as Eunice Hubbell (the woman upstairs.)  Her father was very proud that she participated in the creation and performance of Spoon River Anthology, a play based on Edgar Lee Masters' book.  Naomi performed in the play, sang, played the guitar and violin and wrote the music for 4 original songs.  This production had a 5-month run on Broadway.  In the photo below Naomi as Eunice Hubbell in the horizontal pictures and in Spoon River in the vertical pictures.

From the first lived shows in New York City that she attended as a 4 years old wee child, Naomi has loved the theatre and taken part in many different roles and tasks such as directing, producing, box office, ushering, dresser to a star, intermission piano music between scenes, off stage sound producing, and more.  In addition to playing the violin and piano she also plays the viola and the ukulele.  She wrote plays (she wrote her first play at 7 years old,) was a composer and lyricist, has appeared on television as an actress and singer, nominated for an Emmy, and is a talented painter with one woman show in several cities.  Naomi is very gifted in the arts: she has painted 850 pieces, mostly in acrylic and has drawn up to 2000 drawings.  She is listed as a notable artist by Marquis Who's Who.  One of her paintings is shown in my heading.  Her first job in films was as a Paramount Film extra for a picture on location with Bing Crosby and Nancy Olson called "Mr. Music."

Naomi moved to Los Angeles in early 1961 and has been there ever since.  She joined Theatre West, a young professional actor workshop in Hollywood, when it was established in 1962.  Years later Naomi made a two hour documentary at Theatre West for Spoon River Anthology twentieth anniversary.  Some of Naomi's early fellow members at Theatre West included Betty Garrett (who became a long time close friend) Richard Dreyfuss, Jack Nicholson, Lee Meriwether, Martin Landau, Beau Bridges and later Jeff Bridges (who played piano duos with Naomi,) Gavin McLeod and Carroll O'Connor.  You can read more about Theatre West here.  (photos courtesy Theatre West.)

Naomi had and still has many friends in show business, such as Ed Asner and the late Valery Harper.  Naomi made several guest appearances in television series, in Ed Asner's Police Story and Lou Grant, in Cloris Leachman's Plyllis show and in a Mary Tyler Moore episode with actor Gavin McLeod, a good friend who is a global ambassador for the Princess Cruise Line and who played on The Love Boat.  Naomi also had guest appearances in The White Shadow, The Jeffersons, Barnaby Jones and Police Woman.  Below, top left, are front left to right Valerie Harper, Ed Asner, Cloris Leachman and below Gavin McLeod, Mary Tyler Moore and Ted Knight.

Once she was invited for a special book signing for a book of poems by Maya Angelou (1928-2014) the famous American poet.  Maya talked to her and autographed the beautifully illustrated over sized book with a very limited edition.  Naomi is an avid reader and has books in many rooms of her home with one room devoted to her favorite books.  In the photo below you can see several ceramic pieces from Picasso.  Naomi purchased them in France.

Her father, Joseph H. Hirshhorn, had a house in Cap d'Antibes on the French Riviera where he spent his summers.  Once he sent Naomi a first class ticket and invited her to join him and his fourth wife for several weeks holiday.  There her father would meet artists, art dealers and other people and purchase art for his collection.  Several times her father took her to lunch and for a swim at the legendary Hotel du Cap.  It was built in 1870 for the owner of the French newspaper Le Figaro, Hippolyte de Villemessant.  At first a luxury boarding house for writers in search of peace and relaxation it welcomed Jules Vernes and Anatole France.  In 1889 it became a hotel and later still welcomed writers such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and others of "The Lost Generation".  It was a winter escape for the wealthy - at its restaurant Rita Hayworth met Prince Ali Khan and married him later.  Also guests were the Kennedy family in 1938 when JFK was 21 years old.  Marlene Dietrich, Orson Wells, Winston Churchill, Charles de Gaulle, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton and so many other personalities stayed there.  At one of her lunches at the hotel with her dad he introduced her to Marc Chagall the painter.  The Kirk Douglas' also lived in a cabana on the hotel property.  The hotel celebrated its 150th anniversary this year and is still a world-class favorite amongst artists, writers, etc.  Below are several photos, courtesy Hotel du Cap Eden Roc, with the Duke and Duchess of Windsor in 1936 next to Marlene Dietrich in 1950.  (Be sure to click on collage to see better.)

Naomi's father knew Picasso well as he had purchased several of his work.  Olga Hirshhorn, Naomi step mom, called Picasso's second wife Jacqueline, to tell her that Naomi was visiting from America.  Jacqueline invited Naomi's parents and her to visit Picasso in his studio adjacent to Le Mas Candille, their house in the historical town of Mougins.  Picasso had first seen this house in 1961 and fell in love with it.  He purchased it immediately from Loel Guinness, the son of the original owner Benjamin Symour Guinness of the famous family.  Winston Churchill, an amateur artist, visited the Guinness often and painted scenes of the area.  Picasso who liked attractive ladies was taken with Naomi.  The following day Naomi and her parents were invited by Picasso to come to the Galerie Madoura in Vallauris, France, to attend the opening of an exhibit of Picasso's new ceramics.  There Naomi purchased the limited edition pitcher and plaques that are shown in the collage above.  Picasso was in attendance at the opening.  In photos below Naomi is with Picasso and on the right is her father, Daddy Joe, with Picasso, then Picasso's house in Mougins and a panorama of Mougins.

Another time Naomi's dad invited her to spend several days in his house in La Quinta, California, and they had lunch at the home of novelist Truman Capote (1924-1984) who lived in nearby Palm Springs.  But Naomi kept having recurring bouts of pneumonia, often several times in a year.  As a child her pneumonia was misdiagnosed and her lungs were badly damaged.  She has no cilia, the little hair that cleanses the lungs.  Because of her illness, called bronchiectasis, she had frequent unusual respiratory bacterial infections until it happened so often that she was confined to her home and has been there for years now.  She has been involved with several charitable causes for decades, including co-chair of the AIDS fund raiser.  She created a cactus garden in 1986 and in 1989 was the recipient of the Los Angeles Beautiful award Cactus Garden.  She has been awarded many accolades such as the Crystal Apple award Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome project in 1991, the Spirit of Hope award in 1999.  She started her blog Here in the Hills in 2005 and published her posts until 2015.  There she shared her show business remembrances and her beautiful photos of birds, succulent, flowers and the view from her balcony.  Here are several below.

Naomi is a member of the American Society of Composers, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, Dramatic Guild, Theatre West and a member of the Screen Actors Guild.  She is a voting member for the Emmy of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. She has a thorough knowledge of telesion shows, theatre plays and movies.  Her blogging friends enjoyed all her insights about the films and actors for the Oscars as well as her perceptive reviews of the Emmys.  We are missing all this now.

Naomi never married and always had numerous friends, mostly in show business, who adored her.  But with the passing of years members of her family and close friends have died.  It has been painful and difficult for Naomi who loved company and having fun such as with her convivial "Ladies who Lunch."   Through her posts we would witness her elegant place settings, the lovely flower arrangements and all the cheerfulness.

 But after ten years of blogging Naomi told me that it been time to stop - she was out of fresh ideas for posts and the arthritis in her hands prevented her from typing on the keyboard.  In addition her vision was poor.  She has not used her computer in several years and has forgotten her password.  She regrets to be unable to chat online with her blogging friends and asked me to tell everyone that she is sending virtual hugs.  I read the messages you left for her on my previous post and she was delighted to hear them and thank you.  Her health issues are difficult to bear but she is as fun as ever with her quick wit and warm personality.  She is an intelligent, kind and generous lady and I wish she felt better.  In addition she told me she is quite saddened by the way the country is mismanaged.  She does not recognize her country with its current inept, mean and racist government with so many of Trump's officials being indicted and found guilty.  As for me, I hope the Post Office won't be completely sabotaged so we can vote to stop this spiraling downward.  If you wish to send Naomi a message, please write it in the comments section and I'll convey it to her.  She asked me to make sure to tell everyone that she was grateful for her blogging friends' friendship all these years; it has meant a lot to her.  Below is the flower arrangement I had her favorite Hollywood florist send her for her birthday last June.

A challenging round-trip to Orange County, California

Our eldest daughter's wedding was to be celebrated on Friday July 22, 2016, in Mission Viejo, California, where the parents of her fiance's live.  So on Wednesday, 20 July, we got up early for our trip to Southern California as we had to board our cats at the veterinarian.  We had no time for breakfast. We live about one hour + away from the airport and usually park our vehicle in an offsite parking, close to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Airport.  Unfortunately, after we parked, we had to wait a good 20 minutes, in full sun in the parking lot as the shuttle van had a flat tire.  I thought that this would be our only minor problem, optimist that I am  ...  We did make it to the airport, checked our suitcases, went through Security and arrived at the gate.  I always take a picture of our checked luggage, in case of them being lost or misplaced.

We had booked our flights on Southwest Airlines from Atlanta to John Wayne Airport, in Santa Ana, Orange County, California (SNA,) which is the closest airport to Mission Viejo.  We boarded the aircraft at about 2:00 pm for our 2:40 pm departure.  Then we waited, and waited.  The pilot told us that there had been a computer malfunction but we would soon leave.  We left Atlanta at 6:00 pm, sitting in the aircraft with our seat belts on all those 4 hours.  Our flight was not a direct flight, as we had to change in Phoenix, Arizona.  By the time we left Atlanta, I knew we would miss our connection in Phoenix.  I had a window seat and enjoyed the view to Arizona, though.  Below are some pictures I took from Atlanta to Phoenix.  The flying distance between the two cities is 1586 miles (2,552 km.)  (Click on photos to enlarge.)

The top left photo in the collage above is an air-view of Atlanta and the bottom photo on the right is arriving in Phoenix; Atlanta is much greener (one of the cities in the US with the most trees.)  As shown in the aerial views below of Phoenix and suburbs the developers have built communities of homogeneous houses, very close together.  The Millennial and Boomer generations are thought to wish to live in compact developments with easy access to shopping, but in and around Phoenix it looks like builders are still creating suburban sprawl - buying empty lots, further out, and quickly covering them with houses that look alike.

We arrived in Phoenix at about 6:16 pm Arizona time (3 hours time difference with Atlanta.)

Our connecting flight had been cancelled.  Another flight for Santa Ana (SNA) was to depart around 7:30 pm.  We boarded it at 7:00 pm and waited, and waited.  We were told then that Southwest's technical outage was statewide and most flights had been delayed or cancelled.  At 9:30 pm, still in the aircraft, we were asked to get off the plane as it was not going to fly to SNA and to re-book another flight.  There were hundreds of people waiting in line to re-book flights, it was surreal.  We went out of the area, back to Phoenix departure counters to get a faster reservation on another flight.  The only flight going to SNA was to leave the next evening, Thursday at 6:30 pm.  We could not accept this because if this flight were to be cancelled then we would miss the Friday wedding.  We requested to be placed on any aircraft going closer to California.  The only flight available was one going to Las Vegas, Nevada, around 10:00 pm - we agreed to take it.  We went back through Security and to the gate, and waited.  Since Tuesday night we had only eaten the little crackers and peanuts given to us on the one flight but were afraid to leave the gate.  We watched the almost empty tarmac and the sun going down.

We boarded the aircraft at about 10:30 pm and waited.  Fortunately, we only waited in the aircraft for one and half hour.  We departed Phoenix around midnight and arrived in Las Vegas around 1:00 am or so.  There, we were told that the next flight to SNA would be in the morning, at about 6:30 am.  We sat at the gate and waited, still with no food because nothing close by was open then.  The distance between Las Vegas airport and the SNA, John Wayne airport is 228 miles (367 km) and takes about one hour.  Luckily we did walk to the water fountain at about 6:00 am and noticed that our flight gate had been changed - no one had told us.  Below is a Southwest map showing our flights.

At 7:00 am our flight took off from Las Vegas and we finally arrived at the John Wayne Airport at about 8:00 am.  By then I had been on this trip for almost 30 hours (with no sleep or food) since getting up early on Wednesday (a much longer trip than flying to Paris!)  It turned out that because of a faulty router in their computer system Southwest cancelled 2,300 flights and delayed many more.  That is more than Delta's system outage two weeks ago when 300 flights were cancelled.  At least I saw the sun come up over the Arizona Mountains.  When we reached California it was quite light.

As we watched the luggage carousel turn round and round, we saw no sight of our luggage.  We waited in a long line to find out where our suitcases were - no one knew.  They did tell us that we should get them within a couple of days ... A couple of days!!  The thought of my husband taking his daughter down the aisle with his old jeans and snickers sent tremors through my body - impossible!  Our daughter had planned this wedding for a year, with family wearing complimentary outfits of similar colors; she was to wear a beautiful long ivory gown.  She could not enjoy looking at her wedding pictures throughout her life, with her parents wearing jeans and snickers among the formal party, goodness no.  After we left all our information and picture of the suitcases we went to the car rental reservation where I had booked a Prius with a GPS.  That vehicle had been let go when we did not show up on Wednesday night.  We were given a Toyota Camry without a GPS, but an archaic manual GPS in a small bag.  It turned out that it was defective, which I did not know then... Totally exhausted and weak we boarded the car and drove toward the freeway to Mission Viejo (see map below) - supposed to be a 20 minutes trip at most ... It was close to 9:00 am then, Thursday morning.  Anyone would think we were finished with our troubles then ... Not!

Our daughter had given me some directions to Mission Viejo a month earlier, but I had not paid much attention as I knew we would have a GPS - I had no map, either.  She had advised me not to take one of the toll freeways as one cannot pay for the toll with cash, it has to be done online, and it is not that easy.  Of course our on-again, off-again manual GPS would only direct me to toll roads, then would go blank.  So I would turn right or left to avoid them.  We did that for quite a while.  I did not see many signs.  By 11:30 am (we had left the airport at 9:00 am) completely disoriented, close to tears, I had to admit that we were lost, really lost.  We had kept driving higher and higher in the hills; there were hardly any houses left and we finally had to stop, because the road itself had stopped - there was just a walking path ahead.  I reluctantly decided to call our daughter - I knew she must be so busy because of the rehearsal dinner later on that day.  She told me to stop at a fast food restaurant or a gas station and ask for directions.  A fast food restaurant?  A gas station?  There was nothing around us but rocks and grass - maybe just a small sign on the left.  She asked me to see what the sign said.  I got out of the car and walked to it.  I did a double take and took its picture.  The sign looked like it had been eaten, and it said : "Warning Mountain Lion Country  A Risk ..."

I told her not to worry; we would turn back and stop when we'd reach some houses with people.  There were many new developments in the hills but they were not finished, with no one around.  Finally we saw a sign for "Model Homes."  I thought there could be a staff selling them.  We turned around several empty streets and finally saw a building with some cars parked.  We stopped and I could hear voices in the background.  I came close to the gate and said "anyone here?" a man came forward.  Later on I found out he was from Vietnam and his friends from Laos and Thailand (I had visited these last two countries years ago.)  We were at a community center.  First I asked him to tell our location to my daughter, on the telephone.  He did.  He told us it would take a good 45 minutes for someone to get us and invited us inside to wait.  It was a lovely place with large swimming pools and a profusion of flowers.  He gave us some cool water bottles - which we gladly accepted as the temperature was close to 100 F (almost 38 C.)  It was lovely to be resting for a while in a beautiful place after that trip.  I'll show on the Orange County map below where I think we drove - but I am not sure ...

Our son-in-law, our youngest daughter's husband, came to get us and we followed him back to the hotel in Mission Viejo.  We were able to go to bed for a couple of hours before the rehearsal dinner, which was to be at 5:00 pm (when we finally ate something, but were still in our traveling clothes).  This was the first time we had gone to sleep since Tuesday night and it was 4:00 pm Georgia time (1:00 pm CA time) on Thursday afternoon by then.  Our nephew drove us back to SNA airport after the rehearsal dinner as we never could reach the luggage counter by phone.  Once there and after waiting we found out that the luggage had just been delivered to the hotel.  At least we had our clothes and were very thankful.  The wedding on Friday was very nice and I'll have a post on it when I get more picture.

The week after the wedding we stayed in the area, by the sea, for several days.  I'll have posts about this stay later on (another challenging stay...).  Then we flew back to Atlanta.  I was hoping this trip back would be much better (being optimistic again...).  The flight from John Wayne Airport to Phoenix was on time.  But, unfortunately, the connecting flight to Atlanta was delayed.  I looked out of the window from the plane until there was no more light.

We arrived at the Atlanta Airport at 1:15 am.  The little train carrying passengers to the luggage area stops at 1:00 am.  We were told that we were welcome to walk the 1 1/2 mile in the tunnel to Baggage Claim.  There were many children, infants and persons like me who have problems walking (me, because of my knees) and many carry-on luggage.  Finally, since we were still over a hundred passengers, a special train was sent for us at about 2:00 am.  We piled in the two cars like a box of tight sardines.  Our luggage was there on the carousel at the Baggage Claim.  Then we caught a shuttle back to our offsite parking.  We finally were at home at 4:00 am - it could have been worse!  This is why I call this round-trip a challenging one - it is a trip to remember, or maybe to forget ...

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Addendum -  Monday August 29, 2016 - As I pointed above, I tried not to enter any Orange County Toll Road while driving from the Santa Ana Airport to where ever in the mountains on my way to Mission Viejo, but I must have.  It was a challenge avoiding these toll roads and I, somehow, must have entered one for a moment, and did not realize it.  Just now the mailman delivered a letter from Irvine, California, from the Violation Enforcement of "The Toll Roads."  They are advising me that on July 21, 2016, at 9:47 am I entered a Toll Road without paying the toll.  The notice says "The Toll Roads are collected electronically from a pre-established FastTrak© or ExpressAccount© online via our One-TimeToll© payment."  This was something I was not aware of, apart from my daughter telling me it was a hassle.  So, California tourists to Orange County beware of this.  Oh, the penalty - it is $101.96 (or 88.29 Euros, or 129.56 Canadian Dollars, or 130.68 Australian Dollars or 75.26 British Pounds.)  

The Tour de France 2016 - part 2

The Tour de France 2016 is over.  I watched the end of it on TV in sunny Southern California.  I did not have enough time before the trip west to read anymore on the UK Brexit (exit from the European Union) so I removed my reference to it from part one of my post on the Tour de France.  I'll write a post on it later.  We went to California for our eldest daughter Celine's wedding.  We departed Atlanta on Wednesday July 20th on Southwest Airlines as the wedding was on Friday 22, 2016.  But the 20th was the day Southwest experienced a massive nationwide technical outage that cancelled over 2,300 flights over two days.  Our trip to California was a ... challenge, and I'll have a post on this very tiring trip soon.

The television screen in our hotel in Mission Viejo was very clear, better than ours at home.  I did take some pictures from it of the Tour cyclists and the lovely landscapes around them.  This year the Tour went through Switzerland and it was a joy to look at its gorgeous scenery.  (Click on collage to enlarge.)

As usual there were many Tour decorations along the route and fans decked out in patriotic and funny themes.

My favorite rider, Slovak Peter Sagan, is mostly a sprinter.  Peter won the Word Championship for Racing in 2015.  He has also won numerous international races as a sprinter, such as in the Tour of California, Tour of Poland, Tour of Flanders, Giro di Sardegna, Vuelta a Espana (Tour of Spain,) Tour de Suisse (Switzerland,) Tour of Oman, Tour of Alberta and more.  He has obtained the most points in the sprint classification of the Tour de France in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 becoming the first rider to win the classification in his first five attempts.  For the last stage of the Tour he rode a specialized S-Works Venge ViAS bike, emerald green, with green handlebar tape and world champion stripes with Royal deep-section wheels - a bike made especially for him.  He wore the green jersey five times for the final overall rating in Paris.  He is quite a character and can do acrobatics on his bike.  He was born in 1990 and married his girl friend, Katarina Smolkova, in November 2015, in a bike-themed wedding.  He was wearing a medieval Slovak coat, and looked grand; see pictures below.

Below is a small clip cut from an advertisement movie Peter has done for a nutrition company.  It may be slow to start, but it is very short.

The Tour de France 2016 ended on Sunday July 24 with Stage 21 going from Chantilly to Paris, 113 km (70.2 miles.)  Because of our traveling and the wedding on Friday July 22 I did not see much of the final stages, but was able to see some of them on television in the evenings.  The castle of Chantilly is one of my favorites and one that I used to go to and visit often while growing up in Paris.  The castle is one of the finest in France and has the largest collection of antique paintings after the Louvre in Paris.  The castle library contains 60,000 volumes, some dating from the 11th century.  The grounds of the castle give examples of garden styles during a period of 300 years.  (Photos courtesy Sophie Lloyd.)  The Tour de France went by the castle on their way to Paris.

Then as always I enjoyed the views around Paris and in the city itself taken from the helicopter flying over the riders.  They even showed the lake of Enghien-les-Bains, in a suburb near Paris.  My high-school was there, on the banks of this lake.

When the riders came out of the tunnel in front of the statue of Joan of Arc in Paris and rode toward the Champs-Elysees the French Air Force aircraft flew over the avenue at the same time.

Kenyan/British Chris Froome kept his yellow jersey to the end of the Tour and won the 2016 Tour de France.  He rode with his team and drank some beer instead of the traditional glass of Champagne.

For the last stage of the Tour to its triumphal finish Froome rode a yellow Pinarello Dogma bike with a rhino motif on the head and top tube and a yellow flash on the saddle to match his yellow jersey.  This was Froome third Tour de France overall victory.