Withdrawal from Paris

Dear Friends and followers,

Leaving Paris and reentering our normal lives is a bit like a flu shot.  It is necessary but not fun.  We had a totally stress-free travel day home, in fact arrived early at every juncture of the journey.  To say that we are tired is an understatement, but it is an exhilarating fatigue that is laced with gorgeous memories and wistful longings and hope for more trips to come.  My French was a little better this year but still not great.  Bernie’s was more and more refined and that pleases him immensely.

It’s much colder and grayer here in Alabama than in Paris and finding the car again as our mode of transportation is just plain sad.  Walking is such great exercise; however,  my feet and legs do need a little respite.  I’ve spent over three hours sorting through mail, an hour on voice mail phone messages and discovering a vast array of spider webs all over my house.  What do these tiny creatures do while I’m away?

I’ve also discovered some surprises.  One friend has been in the hospital; another, very ill.  And I have arrived to start the long run toward launching my book for the holiday season.  Who said that retirement was just a lazy, unproductive time?  Who said that?  I’d like to meet them!

I want to share two things with you.  One is from a book I read while in Paris by Francine Prose.  It’s about leaving Paris and it’s just a beautiful analogy which makes me wish I could write like she does.  Enjoy!

“SAYING GOOD-BYE TO a city is harder than breaking up with a lover. The grief and regret are more piercing because they are more complex and unmixed, changing from corner to corner, with each passing vista, each shift of the light. Breaking up with a city is unclouded by the suspicion that after the affair ends, you’ll learn something about the beloved you wished you never knew. The city is as it will remain: gorgeous, unattainable, going on without you as if you’d never existed. What pain and longing the lover feels as he bids farewell to a tendril of ivy, a flower stall, the local butcher. The charming café where he meant to have coffee but never did.
Magnify those feelings a thousandfold when the city is Paris. Every bridge is a pirate’s plank the lover walks at his own peril, watching the twinkling Seine and giving serious thought to jumping and losing himself in that seductive, sparkly blackness. Every spire pierces the heart. Every alley, every smoky tabac, every fountain was killing me”

Excerpt From: Prose, Francine. “Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932.” HarperCollins Publisher, 2013-03-11. iBooks.

And then, I’d like to share the link from Richard Nahem’s EYEPREFERPARIS blog about a new opportunity in Paris that we missed!!  It’s called the Bustronome and is a traveling dining experience while touring the city in a large bus.   Here’s the link:   http://www.ipreferparis.net/2014/11/bustronome.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IPreferParis+%28I+Prefer+Paris%29.   Thanks, Richard, for always being on top of the latest and greatest in Paris.  If you’re in need of a great tour guide while in Paris, he’s your man!

I will continue to blog so hope you will check the web site periodically as we reenter our lives here in America.

Best to all,

Linda