{"id":3483,"date":"2015-10-06T14:28:34","date_gmt":"2015-10-06T21:28:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/?p=3483"},"modified":"2015-11-07T10:51:43","modified_gmt":"2015-11-07T18:51:43","slug":"october-6-2015-timeless-time-in-paris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/dev\/life-stories\/october-6-2015-timeless-time-in-paris\/","title":{"rendered":"October 6, 2015 – Timeless time in Paris"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"seine<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019ll resume recording posts when I return from Paris. Thanks.<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s Monday (yesterday) afternoon and I\u2019m sitting on my bed in an apartment in Paris. I\u2019ve just woken from a nap and as I look out the bedroom window, the rainwater is running down the grey slate on the sides of the Mansard roofs across the street. After several really beautiful days, we\u2019re having some rain. I\u2019ve traipsed around the streets of Paris in the rain before \u2013 grey skies seem more \u201cnormal\u201d to me here than sun, really. But I\u2019m inside today, not taking in any sights, just herbal tea with honey, lemon and ginger and chicken broth \u2013 I\u2019ve come down with a cold \u2013 not exactly on my agenda for our Pilgrimage! After lashing about inside myself about it all, I\u2019ve surrendered to having a new experience \u2013 a sick day (hopefully not more than one!) in Paris. I\u2019ve never spent a day here, cozied up inside tending to myself, while all of Paris is out and about \u2013 including my Paris Pilgrims. They were sweet this morning, getting me citrus fruit and bringing over from the other apartment (we\u2019ve rented 3 apartments in one neighborhood, living like \u201creal\u201d French people for a week), the starting of the soup I\u2019d started after last night\u2019s roast chicken dinner. My throat was scratchy last night, so I had an inkling this was coming.<\/p>\n

One of the pictures I had for our time here was to have a dinner in. Yesterday we shopped in the Sunday morning market a block away: rotisserie chickens (French chickens just taste better), buttery yellow potatoes (ditto) cooked in a gratin with cr\u00e8me fraiche (the French have incredible dairy products), tiny haricot verts (green beans) and a big green salad of butter lettuce and French radishes with a shallot-Dijon red wine vinaigrette. And of course a Bordeaux from the wine shop and baguette, and we had a Sunday dinnertime feast! Two of the Pilgrims, Tania and Karen added to it, with the most exquisite looking cupcakes I\u2019d ever seen, like gorgeous French roses.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re spending the day out and about without me and it\u2019s just fine. We\u2019ve had two days together so far, giving everyone their bearings. I don\u2019t think that I\u2019d have just chosen to stay in and let them all venture out if I\u2019d not gotten sick. I\u2019m imagining that they will come back with great tales of their adventures today. They were starting on the Batobus \u2013 a water \u201cbus\u201d that cruises up the Seine, making regular stops along the way. Fun! As much as I\u2019d really<\/em> rather not be sick and would love to be out with them, I\u2019m wondering if my getting a cold isn\u2019t really offering us all an experience that otherwise wouldn\u2019t have happened. There is a gentle sweetness to my being inside listening to the rain, writing and resting. And they\u2019ll spend time without my translating or speaking or navigating for them, allowing them a closer relationship with Paris without my being \u201cin the middle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before I left last week, I had a very strong feeling that I was going to miss Joe and Bo so much, I\u2019d just ache<\/em> for them. I cuddled with Joe the morning of my flight, my physical being connecting with his, wondering how I could leave? It was a new thing. I was actually worried that I\u2019d not want to be here when I arrived! I was telling myself I\u2019d been here lots before, was Paris all that special, really? Then we landed Thursday morning to blue skies. Riding in the shuttle into the center of Paris, bright with the sunlight, I remembered. I was tingly. Paris. I was here, really here<\/em>.<\/p>\n

As I thought about this when I was taking a hot bath earlier this morning, other timeless<\/em> moments I\u2019ve had here in Paris floated by in my mind:<\/p>\n