Vive La France!

DAY 31 A bientot Paris

Not au revoir but a bientot “see you soon” Paris.  From Paris to DC and on to Orlando….picking up 4 free US Airways tickets by having our plane changed/getting “bumped”…yea!

Am not sure how to summarize a month that felt like one long wonderful dream.  In the last few months I have been meditating on Psalm 103 which I think may say it all.

“Bless the Lord Oh my soul and all that is within me bless His holy name.

Bless the Lord Oh my soul and forget not all His benefits.

Who forgives all your sins, and heals all your diseases.

Who redeems your life from the pit, and crowns you with love and compassion.

Who satisfies your desires with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”

A year ago I was recovering from the cancer surgeries, contemplating the events of the prior six months and very determined to “forget not all your (my) blessings”.  Certainly I have been forgiven, I have been healed, and  I experience God’s love and compassion. I return now from an amazingly “good thing” which I’ve desired to do for so long and I do feel renewed.

I am so very thankful.

I can’t close this blog without expressing my gratitude to Wade for insisting that we go for this month to Paris… even when I felt like it was “too extravagant”. “too costly” or just “not worthy” for such a thing.  How thankful I am to have a wonderful husband who not only loves me but makes my dreams come true.

DAY 30 Pont des Arts & One last look

Our last full day in Paris - hard to believe!  Spent the majority of the day packing and cleaning… then there was that brief trip to the suitcase vendor…seems I accumulated a few more things than I thought : )

Went to Hippopotamus for our last dinner which is a family restaurant chain here, then walked back to the flat.  For the evening it was back to central Paris along the Seine for a final look.  Wade and I put our lock on the Lover’s Bridge…it’s our 20th anniversary so we put it by the 20th pole on the 20th wire, so we could find it again. Parker then led us to the middle of Pont Neuf to look down the Seine and watch the sunset.  Just lovely.  We stayed until 10pm to see the Eiffel Tower twinkle once again…..took one last deep breath of Paris then headed home for a short nights sleep before the trip to the airport in the morning.

DAY 29 Conciergerie, Paris Beach & Lovers Locks

Met Eric at the Palace of Justice, which is not what we think of as a palace, but their Federal and Supreme Court building.  It is a fully functioning public building but we found it very quiet and quite empty.  Seems that the French vacation season has begun which means that most people take the month of August off work.  Government services function with skeleton crews and many local businesses close for the month.  In fact Eric enlightened me as to why I was seen so quickly in the emergency room the other night - the general population is out of town?! Certainly a strange idea for us.

Next to the Palace of Justice is the Conciergerie, an old royal residence from the 14th century that over time became used as a prison.  Medieval architecture and included Marie-Antoinette’s prison cell and dungeon where she spent the year before losing her head.

Had a lovely lunch with Eric and talked about French history (he’s a history buff), current world events and culture.  He reminded us that dining in France is a “ritual” to be done very slowly and with much conversation.  I’d like to adopt more of that attitude for our meals at home…. enjoyable and healthy

From there we walked along the Seine to one of the Parisian beaches.  It’s a summer tradition where they bring in tons of sand and make several beaches right along the river.  They put up umbrellas, have sand toys, and at one location have brought in a wave pool.  They have paddle boats for on the river, but it’s still not clean enough to actually swim in.  I thought it was cool but Brady deemed it a “fake beach” mainly due to the lack of surfing.  The Parisians sure seemed to enjoy it tho.

We crossed a footbridge, Le Pont des Arts, which has fencing on both sides which is curiously filled with padlocks.  Evanne and I passed this earlier and surmised that alot of people must lock their bikes here during the week.  Today I was informed that this is the most romantic bridge in Paris and that these are “Lovers Locks” put there by couples to seal their love.  Each lock has people’s names on it. I wanted to buy a lock to put on but a few minutes before had dropped my last 2 Euros in the Seine while digging in my purse to pay a street artist for a painting.  Will have to go back to do this another time.

DAY 28 Shopping, Relaxing & Mount Parnasse

Slept in some as we got in rather late from the hospital.  My first wonderful surprise of the day was to get my three prescriptions filled for antibiotic drops, night time ointment and day time moisturizer.  The surprise was that the lady at the pharmacy went to a cabinet, handed them to me and it only cost 15Euro (about $22) for the whole thing!!

Went to the Bastille Market and made a few purchases and window shopped around the neighborhood.  Relaxed this afternoon and just hung out at the flat.

For the evening, we arranged to meet our French friend Eric, his girlfriend Valerie, and Eric’s daughter Josephine.  Josephine suggested a Korean Bar-b-que restaurant and led us there.  I had my doubts at first (I never had Korean food and didn’t know Korean’s did Bar-b-que?!).  What a pleasant surprise with a yummie soup for starters, a large bowl of rice with some things on top, and a plate of very thinly sliced beef which we cooked on a hibachi type gas grille on the table.  After it was cooked you dipped it in a lovely sauce and ate it with the rice.  Really good! 

We ate, spoke together in Franglish and laughed alot.  Valerie is an engineer by profession, but does photography for a hobby.  She brought us prints of some of her work which was really lovely.  The macro shots of plants and flowers were my favorites.  She also gave us a USB with more photos on it.  I can’t wait to see those.

After dinner we raced over to Mountparnasse (the largest office building in Paris) just in time to make the 11pm closing time to go to the top.  And what a view it was- a 360 degree view of Paris all lit up… magnifique!

DAY 27 Picnic at Luxembourg Gardens

Wade and I went to a nearby market while the teenagers slept in.  Returned home in time to fix them breakfast crepes and pack a picnic lunch.  We headed out to the Luxembourg Gardens to enjoy our french sandwiches, paprika chips, fruit, galettes (a short-bread type cookie) and a little red wine (for the adults of course).  Even though the day was a bit overcast, the beauty of all the yellow and purple varieties of flowers shown through.

A walk by the Sorbonne, then through the Latin Quarter.  Lots of fascinating sights, smells and sounds in this busy area.  As we were walking down the street something flew into my eye….and I couldn’t get it out all day.

We went to a comedy show “How to be a Parisian in One Hour”.  Very funny and mostly about the attitude one has to adopt to appear “Parisian” as compared to the way other nationalities approach things such as riding the Metro, shopping, going to a club etc.  By the close of the show, my eye was still hurting and had begun to get very red and weepy.  To shorten the story, I ended up going to the Emergency Room of a special hospital only for Optical problems.  At 12:30am I was the only patient.  The doctor saw me within 5 min. and I was out the door in another 15 with the object removed from my eye and a prescription for antibiotic drops as it had scratched my cornea.  Now that’s what I call medical care!