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I love PARIS in the Spring Time!

 
 
Lately, I've been living vicariously through one of my college students as she made a springtime trip to Paris. Ahhhhh....to be in Paris, again.
 
I love that city - I've been obsessed with it since high school French class. My friend, Cathy, and I were so Paris-crazed, that we talked her parents into inviting a foreign-exchange student to live with them. He was French, indeed, but did not live up to our teenage fantasies of the cute Parisian boy. He was averse to showers and a bit of a grouchy loner.
 
Just after I was married, I finally took a trip to Paris with my husband. We rode the Metro, visited the Notre Dame, and ate croissants in a cafe. Paris was everything I'd imagined and more. It was a bit gritty - a tad decadent - and so, so, so gloriously cool.
 
We loved the Rodin museum with its enormous front lawn and statue garden. We listened to jazz on a boat docked at the Seine. We ate anchovies on pizza in a dark alley-side cafe. We sauntered through book stalls and climbed the steps of Montmartre. I felt like I was Audrey Hepburn.
 
This Christmas, Milt gave me this little vintage travel book to add to my growing vintage Paris collection. It is from 1960, probably given out at the airport for tourists.
 
 
Now, while I loved Paris in the early 1990s -
I can only dream of what it must have been like in the 1960s... J'adore!
 
 
The book highlights things to do and places to see - some of which are no longer around.
 
 
Of course, there are the Paris women - tres chic!
 
 
But, I've saved the best part for last. In the back of the book, tucked away like little memories of a glorious trip, were mementos.
 
A ticket to Sainte Chapelle Exposition and another to the Tombeau de L'Empereur. An airplane cocktail napkin, soft and faded. A card from the Oberon paris - "Do Your Shopping." And a receipt from a restaurant at the Hotel Lutetia, 43, Boulevard Raspail, Paris...
 
Sigh....
 
For now, I'll tie on my vintage scarf and pick up my glittery Paris bag, and pretend (for just a moment), that I'm about to leave for my favorite city in the world.
 
 
 
 
 

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Anonymous said…
I had the best food there!
March 18, 2013 at 11:15 AM
Jamie Janosz said…
Yes! Me, too! I still love going to French restaurants whenever I'm able...
March 18, 2013 at 11:38 AM
Anonymous said…
This was always London/England for me...since I was 7 and addicted to the old Sherlock Holmes series. The UK was everything I imagined, too. We did take a ferry over to Bologna(?) France, which was lovely. I hope you get to go again.
March 20, 2013 at 7:44 AM
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