No cell phones, no e-mails, no computers; just back to a simpler time when people couldn’t contact you at any given moment. It was wonderful! Yes, we did listen to the answering machine when we got home every evening, but that was all. Katarina, Patrick and I spent our time like tourists in a city that I know as well as the back of my hand. Funny when you live somewhere, you always think you’ll have time to do something later on and then the years pass and you still have never gone to the top of the Eiffel Tower, or visited Notre-Dame, or stepped foot into the Louvre. I have friends like that in Paris; as shocking as that may seem to many!
When friends or family visit it gives you the opportunity to do all those things you think of doing, but never do. Last Spring when I showed my mom around Paris it was wonderful to see how much my mom’s attitude had changed! The first time she was in Paris was in 1978 and all she wanted was for me to “come home”. She couldn’t accept at the time that Paris was “my home”. Last year, Mom fell in love with Paris! Finally!
This year Katarina, or Katia as she now prefers to be called, fell in love with Paris at first sight; just as I did my first time 37 years ago! (OMG!!! That long ago!) She loved everything - the food, the city, the people, the Métro, the kissing on both cheeks with my friends and Patrick’s family, and most of all, the language! She learned so much French in such a short time with “a perfect French accent” as everyone told her! As for me, I still have a slight American accent when I speak even after 37 years, much to my chagrin!
Maya Muses: Summer is here, and although one may love Paris, it’s also good to get away. So time to get back to what’s going on around the world, watching podcasts and news programs, connecting to the internet, etc. and just sitting on the beach watching Katia and Patrick build sandcastles. Most of mine are built in my head.
12 responses so far ↓
1 Kerri // Jul 1, 2008 at 4:42 pm
So glad it all worked out for you all to go! Grandma said you had a great time, though Patrick was trying to stir up trouble a few times?
2 Lynn // Jul 1, 2008 at 5:20 pm
Oh Kerri, you just have to love Grandma the way she gets things all twisted around! I’ll have to write a few posts on how trouble kept stirring up around Patrick a couple of times because of Katarina! Opps….Katia! No fault of hers though.
3 Gioven // Jul 3, 2008 at 10:35 pm
coucou !!!
Comme promis un petit message sur ton site, je vois que vous avez bien profité de paris et que Katia !!!!! a aimé la France, c’est génial, tu as raison quand tu dis qu’elle apprenait le francais rapidement et tu as également raison de dire que tu as l’accent américain. Content de vous avoir rencontré tout les trois. Aller un p’ti mot en Anglais quand même pour terminer… bye.
4 Lynn // Jul 4, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Merci, Gioven, pour ton petit mot, mais j’aurias préféré que tu me dises, “Mais non, Lynn, tu n’as pas d’accent!” (Hé hé!) Nous aussi, nous sommes heureux de t’avoir rencontré!
5 Mia // Jul 9, 2008 at 3:47 pm
I happy that you had a wonderful time in Paris!
I guessed that you would…
I must visit it soon….
But being away from the big city is good too,just to relax and just be!
Building sandcastles are fun, in your head or on the beach!
Wish I was there….on the beach…building sandcastles or just walking alongside the sea shore….
6 Lynn // Jul 9, 2008 at 7:31 pm
My old boy-friend, Jean-Pierre, use to always say, (Actually he still says it!) “All extremes are bad. People need a balance in life.” I didn’t think so at the time, but through the years I’ve come to agree with him!
Being in the city all the time makes you want to go to the beach or the countryside, and being in the countryside all the time makes you yearn for the city. What people need is a balance between the two to appreciate the other.
7 Mia // Jul 10, 2008 at 5:43 pm
So true….
We have a word in Sweden: Lagom…
Meaning;Just enough,just right…
It is a good word…
Too much of anything is noooo good…
Lagom is just about right!
Mia
8 Lynn // Jul 11, 2008 at 12:01 am
Lagom….I must remember that word! It’ll become a part of my vocabulary!!! Not that I can use it often! LOL!!! I use to have a Swedish boyfriend, Lars,…. then it would have come in handy, but not with my partner, Patrick, who’s French! Oh well!
9 Mia // Jul 11, 2008 at 6:15 pm
Haha….yeah….then you know how we are in Sweden…
Lars?My brothers name is Lars!
I would love a little French or Spanish temperament sometimes….
.Hmmm,That’s my meaning of the word;Sometimes hot and sometimes cold…not luckewarm…
10 Lynn // Jul 11, 2008 at 7:19 pm
Wouldn’t that be the most incredible serendipitous twist of fate if your brother was my friend Lars!!! Then again stranger things than that have happened as far as destiny is concerned!!!
(Was your brother in Paris in 1973? Yes it was that long ago!!!)
11 Mia // Jul 11, 2008 at 9:41 pm
No,don’t think he was…
That had simply been too much..
NOW we are far away from the topic….
If we met we would never stop talking…hehe
12 Lynn // Jul 14, 2008 at 8:25 pm
Yes, it would have been way too weird!
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