Upon Reflection

Five years ago I embarked upon a dream of a lifetime, to live in Paris, the City of Lights. Her history, her monuments magnificently lit at night, her enigmatic personality beckons one with all the seductive charm of the most formidable femme fatale. And it is with great sorrow that I must leave her as she is now part of me - in my blood, in my heart, and always on my mind. As I prepare for departure I move about the city drinking in the sights and sounds I have begun to take for granted in the normal course of daily living. Often surrealistic, I feel as a phantome, a spectre that passes unnoticed through the hustle bustle of rush hour on the metro. Her parfum penetrates my nostrils, a mélange of humidity, tobacco, frommage, and duck fat. Her song fills my senses, the rythym kept time by the trains on the track, the horn section composed of angry, impatient drivers, the chanteuse gay laughter of young girls flirting with boys. There is no place like Paris and I am the luckiest girl in the world to have lived here. As I reflect I realize just how full my life has been! I participated in my first manifestation, attended an ambulation, and puked in a metro station. I've sat with my sketch pad drawing in le Louvre, and danced the Tango on the Quai St. Bernard on a balmy summer night, the bateux mouches loaded with tourists capturing the romance on film. I've been to London, Switzerland, Belguim, and Italy, paid homage at the Sacred Beaches of Omaha, Gold, and Juno, visited ancient Roman ruins, and fell on my ass in a bar in Amsterdam. I've palled around with Communists, Socialists, Marxists, and Jazz musicians. I've stayed in a suite at the Ritz with a dream date, picknicked on the Pont des Arts under a full moon, and took a young Italian lover who ferried me about on a scooter! I learned to appreciate the pleasures of raw oysters from Bretagne, fois gras, and stinky, unpasteurized cheese, and dined for hours with friends consuming countless bottles of wine. The friendships I have forged will last a lifetime - and what beautiful friends they are! It is they I will miss most of all.