Beautiful Paris, Beautiful Me (A Travel Memory)

In #Paris, I dress like a #Parisian: dark purple broad-rimmed felt hat, wool coat with a mandarin collar, and black leather motorcycle boots.

I wander around the Christmas Market at the Champs Elysees sipping hot mulled wine while "oohing" and aahing" at Indian pashmina scarves and French trinkets and toys  for sale at stalls in the open market. The city sounds of Elvis Presley's Christmas songs playing at make-shift ice skating rinks and it smells of winter and spice. And all the fun is topped by a postcard-perfect merry-go-round at the end of the highway.

I fall in love with Paris at first-sight, an unexpected and surprising feeling that leaves me  numb and incapable of taking in too many sites. As a matter of fact, I  ride  only on the big red bus and sigh at the #Tour Eiffel.  Unlike having a crush at first-sight, that might or might not take, love at first-sight is alarming and requires a mental commitment to change your life — even the slightest bit — in lieu of your surprising new feelings. All I think about is how I must one day live in a city with a symmetrical marvel of design, each cobbled street, bridge, museum, and garden flowing into the other until the city is seamless, like it's women who walk around casually as if they themselves aren't a mystery and marvel of beauty. 

I travel to #France during the end of the Christmas holiday because my children are away with their father, my ex-husband,  and I need a vacation. It has been a difficult year of plumbing and roof problems, day and night shifts at work, and all sorts of day to day challenges. I think I will only sleep in my bed and swim in the underground pool at the five-star hotel where I am staying (I manage to get a great travel package/deal on a internet travel site, and I take on extra teaching shifts at the college where I work to be able to afford the trip). But when I arrive at the hotel in Ile de France, I walk around the grounds of Louie and #Marie Antonette’s palace where horses roam around pastures as if waiting for orders from the queen and king.  My hotel window overlooks Antoniette’s Chateau, which I make a mental note to visit even though I never get around to it.

The palace grounds are now a park open to the public. It’s visitors are mostly French and  I admire their cozy introspection. The men walk around with their hands behind their backs and the women listen to their men. Sometimes they stop and take in their surroundings with a sense of complete wonder. The young and old look as if they are visiting for the first time, and I am sure they are regulars.

The days are cool, overcast, and invigorating. I take the train into town every day with no itinerary or map. Instead,  I listen to the other Americans who speak loudly to learn where they are going. Mostly, I end up in the #Champs Elysees riding the red bus and staring at the #Tour Eiffel. One day on the train two teens who speak of collecting money for the blind (I think that is what they tell me) pick pocket me of $600 dollars: My purse is open, I'm dazed by France, and easy prey for criminals.  When   I return to my hotel room, I cry but collect myself very quickly; it is my first trip to Paris, and I don't have time to waste on tears, spending instead the rest of my three days window shopping in #Ille de France and eating crepes--fruit, chocolate, meat, potatoes-- for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (the cheapest and most wonderful meal around).

In Paris, I flirt with the men on the metro who give me directions in broken English. They wait for my train to arrive and make sure I am safely on it. In Paris, I love to say  "merci," "bon jour," and "bon chance," the only phrases I say with flair. I forget that in America I do not have time to think or breath; I just do, even though I know I'm suppose to stop and smell the roses.

In Paris,  because I am alone and worry-free for four days, I take time to put on my make-up, blow dry my hair, and mix and match my outfits. In Paris, I am beautiful.

Read my exciting memoir, "The Continent of Ruby," available at: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TT5DDWO