paris

[memelaina]

surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and my husband is the bestest to be found.

kent just sent me an email with reservations for a trip to paris. we leave on thursday the 11th december and return on tuesday the 16th. he's been looking for something to do with his extra days of vacation (that they won't let him carry beyond 31 dec, and what a pleasant solution he came to.

we did paris in december (hooray for fare sales!) a couple of years ago (two, three, four?) and liked it a lot. the city is bustling with it's own life, and not with tourists. tourist spots are deserted. we went to the cluny and to the musee de la musique and had whole rooms to ourselves. this time we will attempt the louvre. and take a train out to chartres.

for years i avoided paris because of high school and college french teachers who told me the french were stuck up and nasty and wouldn't talk to anyone. i even spent a ten hour stopover at the Paris airport once on the way back from Israel without even sticking my nose outside. i could so easily have taken a cab and seen notre dame and had dinner and come back in plenty of time for my flight.

then in the 90s when i was working at the university of colorado, i began planning trips to europe for my students. and worked with a lovely french teacher who told me parisians were lovely people but didn't like to have tourists assume that everyone spoke english. of course, many of them DO speak english, but no one should assume so. i led three trips to paris and had a wonderful time on each of them.

all one needs to do to be able to travel comfortably in france is learn one phrase, and to say it with deep meaning - "Je regrette, mais je ne parle pas francais." as long as they know you are unhappy about not speaking french, they'll take care of you.

kent is not so good with going places that don't speak english, so he just hovers around me and let's me do all the talking. but after twenty odd years together, i'm pretty much used to it.

hey lisajulie, why don't you come over and join us? we can sit in the park and call kitties to us "Minou, minou, minou!" and feed them tidbits.

Comments

[lisajulie.livejournal.com]

Waaaah! I'm employed and don't have the vacation time.

Let me suggest that you seek out Betjeman & Barton in Paris and look at/try some of their teas. They have an outpost in Montreal where jonsinger and I spent much money to much good effect. In fact, we easily spent much of our import allowance there - although when you say "tea" to the border people, they think "tea bag" and don't ask further exactly how much tea you bought.

Oooh, and I wonder if the market at St. Denis is still going on and what would be there in the winter.

Have fun! Drink _good_ hot chocolate and eat fine pastries.