Les Trois Parisiens--le primier, or The Three Frenchmen--Part One

Thought I'd write about an adventure I had oh, about five years ago now! It was July 2004 and my first trip to "The Continent." I decided to make a real journey out of it, since I was going to Italy for a month that June to work with my old prof from FSU in his program for singers. I didn't really have any men adventures until I went to Paris, my last stop on a two-month adventure that took me from London to Wales to Tuscany to Rome to Budapest and the countryside of France. In my experience, Paris is truly the city of LOVE!

Or at least hooking-up . . .

I flew into Paris from Budapest, where I had been visiting an old mission companion, Helga, for a week. That was another adventure, but it doesn't have anything to to w/men so that will have to wait for another time . . .

So, I flew into Paris on one of those really cheap European airlines that fly you from city to city for an incredibly reasonable price. They served no drinks, and you had to keep your luggage under 20 kilos. (This was LONG before the US airlines started streamlining cabin service & charging ridiculous luggage fees.) I got into Paris late in the day and decided to rest up so as to maximize what I then thought would be my only day in the city. (Fortunately, it wasn't, and I ended up having two more days there--and two more experiences I shall share in later posts!) I spent a good hour looking over all the many sites and figured out a game-plan to squeeze in as many as possible: Notre Dame, Le Louvre, La Musee de Rodin, Le Champs Elysees, La tour eiffel, and a few others.

Early in the morning, I left my hotel, which was out by the Orly Airport in one of the residential outskirts of the city, took a bus into Paris. and started walking around. I discovered the pleasure of a Parisian croissant du chocolate, ran through the Louvre in a matter of a few hours--pausing briefly to check out the Mona Lisa & a few other famous paintings, witnessed the genius of Rodin's sculputures and the beauty of the gardens around his old home, walked at least twice across the Seine River, saw Notre Dame & had a little photo-op there feeding the birds, and took in the architectural marvels of this great city. It was quite the whirlwind day!

Eventually, I found myself along the Champs Elysees, the main drag of Paris--similar to Broadway or 5th Ave in Manhattan. It culminates in a hill, upon which stands the glorious Arc de Triomphe, and along its sides there are loads of restaurants, movie theaters, high-couture designer shops, and all kinds of rather interesting people.

At some point while walking around on the Champs Elysees, I happened to run into this really nice young African man. It's a pretty natural thing for me to make random insta-friends with people when I'm traveling alone. I don't remember this guy's name now, or even what country he was from in Africa. But we hit it off and started talking en francais. He really was lovely. I was hankering for a movie, not having seen one in theaters all summer long, and he agreed to go along. We ended up viewing the remake of "The Stepford Wives," starring Nicole Kidman. I was so relieved that this version was a comedy--the older one literally gave me nightmares! We saw it "V.O."--version originale. Which meant the frenchie French had to watch the movie en anglais and read subtitles in their language. The other option was to watch it dubbed in French w/no subtitles. I wanted to understand my stinkin' entertainment! It was kind of funny, b/c I totally got all the idiomatic American jokes and was just about the only person laughing in the entire theater--a rather strange experience. I'm sure you can imagine--first, I am American; second, I am a SINGER and thus quite vocal; third, anyone who knows me well knows that I LOVE to laugh. The French, on the other hand, did not seem to be as exuberant or liberated in their self-expression of amusement during that movie. I wonder if they just didn't get the jokes, or if something got lost in translation . . . who knows!

But on to my lovely African friend. After the movie, we decided to see the Eiffel Tower, "La tour Eiffel." MAN, is that huge monstrosity of twisted metal beautiful at night, glowing in its thousands of lights! It can be seen across the city and is a gorgeous sight. We sat down to gaze up at the glory before us on one of the greens a short distance away. There were thousands of people milling around--we were lucky to find a little spot of grass to sit on. So my friend and I just sat together, visited, looked up at that famous Tower together. It was quite lovely and romantic. Or at least it had the potential to be! I don't know that I was totally able to let down my walls enough for that to come forth, considering I had just met the man. But I did feel very comfortable with my handsome African friend.

When we eventually parted ways that night at the metro station, we exchanged emails and les bises, the cute little air-kisses that French people are wont to do. That piece of paper has long since been lost, and I never did stay in touch with him, but I do still remember that lovely, serendipitous evening en Paris.

~KJ