Adventures in Paris

Monday was overcast and rainy with bouts of sunshine. We met up with Danielle who is here for 3 months visiting with her mother and brother. We toured the Marais, the Jewish quarter, visiting the Chagall visit at the Jewish Museum. I did not know how religiously dedicated Chagall was and how well he illustrated the bible. We know Chagall from the Hadassah windows and the windows we saw at the Rockefeller church in upstate New York. During the years he worked on the Old Testament, he took commissions from churches and personal commissions but never betrayed his dedicated to Judaism and the Old Testament.

From the museum we visited the area a bit and stopped for a Kosher lunch of falafel, lamb gyros, and Israeli salads. It was wonderful, we all cleaned our plates.

We had a short day because Bob, Shirley, Stu and I had plans for the Paradis Latin show in the evening. We had a meal of left overs, fresh salmon, rillette, salads, wine, cheese, and then took a taxi to the Paradis Latin where we planned to see the follies. The opening numbers were as expected. Lots of bare bosoms, male dancers in tights, everything we wanted. Shirley left for the restroom and never returned. Sadly, she fell and hurt her arm, felt quite dizzy. She gallantly returned to watch the show but it was evident after a few minutes that she needed to leave. That's when our great adventure began.

Shirley and I went to the back of the theatre where the maitre d' said we would have a doctor come to check her out. No doctor arrived, but an ambulance with three non-English speaking young Frenchmen arrived. And off we went. Shirley on the gurney in the ambulance and me sitting on a chair beside her. This was way more attention than we needed. This was not an American ambulance. Shirley wasn't strapped into the gurney and I feared that going over all the cobblestones she might bounce off of the gurney. We laughed more than anything else, although her arm hurt very much where she had twisted it.

Our husbands didn't know where we had gone. We had told the maitre d' to let our husbands know after the show was over and then to give them directions to the hospital and hail them a taxi; which he did. Stu and Bob enjoyed the two hour spectacle. Stu claimed that the best part was the juggler, I know otherwise. He has had visions of young perky boobs ever since, although he swears he only thinks of me!

Two exrays and 4 hours later, the men joined us at the hospital and we all went home. Shirley is fine, a bit sore, but otherwise okay. Home at 2:30 AM was way past our bed time. The next day we were all pretty wasted.

Tuesday was our day for the Eiffel Tower visit. We arrived there early for our 12:30 reservation. Never go to the Eiffel Tower without prior reservations. If you do, you might wait 4-5 hours to enter the Tower by elevator. Stu and I had a lovely visit to the top. The day was clear, the view magnificent. You can see the old and new parts of the city, the plan of the boulevards, the Seine. Well worth the trip.

I did have a funny event. I went to the restroom at the top of the tower, very clean, very tiny. In fact so tiny, that I wasn't able to completely dress afterward. A very nice lady stopped me a few minutes later to tell me that one side of my skirt was pushed up. I laughed along with her and thought, I'm definitely getting older. I didn't even care, I'll never see these people again. And, it could have been worse, at least I didn't have any toilet paper trailing from my shoes!

Dinner was Indian food at a lovely restaurant. We've had some lovely times. We are so fortunate.

Adrienne and Stu