Having Paris

Susan and I went to see "Julie & Julia" a couple of nights ago. We walked in after the previews and ads started so the auditorium was too dark to see our fellow audience members, but judging from the laughter, most were women and probably middle-aged.

We laughed at all the appropriate parts and roared at the Saturday Night Live skit (probably because we remembered it from the original).

What we both moaned about most was Paris. Susan lived and worked as a young adult in Belgium and Germany but I've only traveled, a month or two at a time, and am in love with Paris.

A few years ago, as my mother's health was declining, I asked her to choose a city to visit. She had gotten her first passport for a Caribbean cruise with one of my sisters, but no one had ever looked at it. I told her it was illegal to die without using her passport.

I expected her to choose London. She had English friends and an undergraduate degree in English Lit.

She choose Paris. So off we went--my mother, my grown daughter and I-- for 10 days in Paris.
We did all the predictable things; the Eiffel Tower, Montmartre Steps, Seine boat, the Louvre, Musee d'Orsay, Notre Dame, Sainte-Chapelle, some glorious meals and several soaked walks (it was November). She was entranced with the city and said it reminded her of San Francisco. She was born and raised in San Francisco and her parents, although not married at the time, had both gone through the earthquake and fire.

But what I will always remember was her comment while sitting in the Tuileries Garden on a rare sunny afternoon. The Louvre had free admission that day and French families were there in droves. My 85-year-old mother looked around at the French and said, "I think I'm in love."

My mother died in January 2o08 but we'll always have Paris.

Here's to you Mother and to Julia, with all my love.