Written on May 20, 2004
I am sitting in a courtyard in my hotel in Paris. The weather is lovely, the sky is clear, it's 8:50 pm and I've just taken off my sunglasses.
What's all this hooey about Parisians being snotty? A little bit of the local language and a big smile go a long way - everyone I've met has been very friendly.
Many of you have likely been here before, but this is my first time. What an amazing city this is; I am definitely on overload right now. But I've had a wonderful time, and I know that I'll be back again.
An excellent friend of mine has been giving me some good advice of late; she reminds me to "stay in the now" - that is, don't get stuck in the what might have been, or don't think about what is down the road. This has been difficult advice for me to take, because I am constantly thinking of my mother - but I know that it's advice worth taking, so I've been thinking about it a lot. Stay in the now, she says. Look to each day and appreciate it for what it is.
So.
I sat next to two ladies at dinner last night. They were American, with distinct Midwestern accents. It was a woman traveling with her mom. They had been in Paris for about a week, I'd say, and were recapping their trip, which included side excursions to Versailles and Normandy (pretty much the same trip I've taken, but I did it in less time - NUTS! - I'll be back.)
They moaned all through their dinner that they couldn't understand the menu (I have made it a point to not eat in a restaurant with English on the menu. There are plenty of those, however, so they could have chosen an easier place, and have been here long enough to know that.) The food was too rich. (Ha!) They'd read in some guidebook that it wasn't good form to order coffee with your dessert, and they wanted coffee with their dessert. (I am sure it would have been just fine to order coffee with dessert.) The younger woman went over everything they'd seen and done, and asked her mom if there was anything she was particularly impressed by, and wanted to see more of? The mom said, nah, not really.
The mom said, nah, not really.
Me, I am stunned by this town. I am in attention deficit disorder paralysis at times, literally unable to move for the beauty of my surroundings. I want to stop at each building and find out when it was built, and what it was built for. I am flummoxed; I don't know what to do next (but I certainly find things to do.) I am rendered mute. And these ladies can't think of anything that particularly impressed them.
Toward the end of the meal, the younger woman said, well, we've seen Paris. We can go back home and say we've seen Paris. Now, these were very well-traveled ladies. They had been to very many places around the world (so I heard) - but - when the woman said, we've seen Paris, I began to wonder how many places they'd actually seen.
These women came to see Paris in order to go home and report that they'd seen Paris, and I don't think they saw anything at all.
Stay in the now. I get it! And I'm very pleased that I've managed to do it, because otherwise, think of what I would have missed.
I love Paris. Every moment...
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