At Home and in Paris

Paris is Finally Beginning to Unfold ....

I must apologize for being out of touch for some time, but there has been some excitement both in the City of Paris and for me personally. On May 19th, the café, bistro, brasserie, and restaurant outdoor terraces as well as some museums, musical venues, théatres and shops opened their doors for the first time in many months. Travel within France is now possible and hotels are hosting guest agains with limited conditions, since indoor food service is still unavailable, and this seems to be the wettest Spring since we moved to Paris.

Some of us locals are still enjoying the fact that the borders of France are not yet wide open. Only members of the EU and, for French purposes, Andorra, Iceland, Lichtenstein, Monaco, Norway, San Marino, Switzerland, and the Vatican are welcome here for the time being. We are far from being out of the Covid-19 woods, and the population is not yet vaccinated to the point of anything near herd immunity (if there is such a thing,) but we’ll

see if the regulations of social distancing and masking in the majority of public places indoors will keep the numbers of cases and deaths from rising, and the ever increasing vaccination and testing will lead to a significant reduction in cases, in spite of the variants that have crept into the country.

Ted and I had planned a special celebration, many weeks ago for the réouverture of the terraces. We chose the garden restaurant at The Hotel Bristol, heartily recommended by a fellow francophile in D.C. and we prayed for sunshine. This is ironic and attests to the possibility that we are finally adapting to our new country of residence. We had always shied away from warm weather and sun as Los Angelinos. However these days, a ray of sun without heat brings smiles to our faces and we gladly pull out our sunglasses rather than ducking under a shady tree.

The day before the grand opening, I was surprised by the arrival of a few author copies of my memoir, just in time to celebrate this 'most beautiful place in the world'!

I was excited to be able to hold my book in my hands. I was so delirious that one might think this was my first book rather than number six! I couldn’t even wait for Ted to take photos, so I shot some solo images, then considered that 'Photo Booth' on my Mac might be a nice way to make a selfie without warping my face. I was horrified to see that the resulting photo made it appear as though IngramSparks had printed my book backwards. Soon I was laughing so hard, I was moved to send the photo to a friend as a joke. I wrote the caption, “Uh Oh. They printed it backwards!” to which my friend replied, "The book isn’t backwards. But everything else in the world is!"

Then came the longtime, hankered-after day of our romantic déjeuner, set in what promised to be a stunning garden restaurant in a classy hotel. Unfortunately, the day was raining chats et chiens and the lunch was cancelled. The next day promised to be at least partly sunny and not too windy, so we rebooked for the 20th and tossed some salt over our shoulders, a Buddhist tradition to ward off evil. When we arrived, I was impressed with the elegance inside this relativey unpretentious building on the rue Faubourg St. Honoré.

The staff made us feel quite welcome, the food was uniquely prepared, and after lunch coffee was accompanied by a small plate of delectable, homemade chocolates. The plate seemed to refill itself magically whenever we looked away for a moment.

We took photos as if we were still tourists and and Ted wore a tie for the first time in ages. When a stately, slightly older couple at the next table rose to leave, they grinned and asked if we like Paris. I answered in the affirmative and Ted added, “We live here,” in his refined French tongue.

Today, the day after, it’s raining, even hailing small pebbles of ice. But in-between the showers, the sky turns blue, the sun breaks through, and I sit here to do one of the things I love most, writing to you. What a life!