44 Comments

Amor❣️la vie en rose. Magnifique 🎶 Edith Piaf is the sparrow of song. You’ve caught me in the sweet harmonies on the rues leading up the Spanish steps in Paris

As evocative as any memory

I have.

58 years ago my first trip to Paris. The music of my life began in French.

Merci❣️de mon coeur ❣️

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I remember my first stay in Paris. I remember sitting on the steps in front of Sacre-Coeur just after sunrise, looking out over the city and crying like a baby. I could not believe I was there. I returned many times, but the first trip was the best.

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Such a place with more ambiance than any city I've ever visited. And you as well! No wonder it's called the City of Light!

And I have "relatives" there. My stepfather was born there in 1914 so his relatives ( he was married to my mother for almost 50 years) have become mine. We would send our kids to his cousins' kids for the summer and visa versa...oooh Paris!

So thank you so much for your "little" piece that brings "big" emotions and memories and--a destination I certainly hope to visit again!!

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👍🏻🩷

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Picture One is almost enough to tempt me to have dinner there. French class on the list between Spanish and German.

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I have to say it helps to know the language before ordering from a Paris menu. The "scan and point" system can be risky with a French bill of fare. ha ha ha

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I remember your foray in menu, everything translated as horrible. Was that France or Poland or ..... ))) Someone took pity and ordered for you. It turned out the awful was simply the name of the shape of the noodles or something like that. Just another reason to stay surrounded by meadow and fields and oaks and maples. Rabbits debarking the fruit trees..... I don't have recipes... but wouldn't anyway. Maybe if I spoke French.

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Yes, that was in Sardinia. Everything on the menu was frightening. They ordered "snails" for me, but it turned out to be snail-shell shaped pasta. ha ha ha .

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Beautiful…. Thank you…

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All except for the intrusion of Starbucks, right? It was SO unnecessary.

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Ah, Paris, I was only there once for a day - but it remains in my heart forever.

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A city like no other I know. Thank you, Janice

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Lovely, Sharron. Paris is on my list.

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Great! But Starbucks in Paris? Ridiculous. No doubt patronized only by American tourists.

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Starbucks is never on my list.

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👍🏻

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Starbucks ... they're everywhere like Visa ... or is that American Express?

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All three. Once when I was working in Milan for six months, I actually ate at a Wendy's. I was homesick!

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Understand completely. Come to think of it, when I was in Israel for the semester, I hung out in a little pizza parlor in the middle of downtown Haifa because is was the closest thing to an American pizza place around. And when my roommate and I visited her relatives in Tel Avid and found Kellogg's cornflakes in the pantry, we indulged big time.

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So odd, the things we miss when away from home for a long while. I remember buying a bag of California-grown prunes when living in Milan, and twice going to movies I had already seen, just because they were in English.

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Our professor, who had recently moved his family to Haifa from Boston, told us how his son was speaking English to him while they drove home from school. The professor asked him to speak Hebrew, but the kid said, "I'm tired, Dad. I want to speak English for awhile." Living abroad is hard. What kind of work were you doing in Milan?

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Fulbright Exchange. I was teaching teachers / carrying out workshops and seminars in methods and materials for upgrading their english teaching skills.

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I recall for some reason that you spoke Spanish. Did you do any ESL with local Mexican workers? I did in Truckee and it was pretty much flying by the seat of my pants.

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I used to live in Pigalle, only a stones throw from Place du Tertres with an old girlfriend. When she broke it off, I walked away without a single memento of our time there except for a french deck of cards gifted to me by her grandmére, who was always more fond of me that she ever was. The rain brings back memories.

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Ah, a fine plot for a micro-fiction here, Conor. I would love to see the relationship develop between the grandmother and the young man - whether fact or fiction doesn't matter.

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The day she gave me the deck of cards, we had spent the entire day museum hopping, whilst my ex was at work at a bank in the city - me with my pidgin-french and her without a word of English in her head - there's fruit for a story there indeed! Thanks for the memory-jog Sharron.

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Something I really love - a three-minute story about a young man and a grandmother who could not speak English!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m--a1kPgOpI&ab_channel=NealFoard

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Wow - so many parallels - know something, that day we spent museum hopping and failing to talk to each other, is my favourite memory of all my time in Paris and worth more than any lost photograph. I really must write it down.

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Please do!

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Ah, even in a Paris Starbucks memories are made.

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Hah! Maybe so, Ron, maybe so.

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Being French of culture, but not nationality I love French songs and French poetry. Until about 10 years ago, I was in London person. The first time I was taken to Paris, I was 17. And some of my parents friends took me to the Folies Bergères. About 10 years ago, I choose Paris to meet my cousin.. and suddenly I could see it’s spirit. That was good.

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Great story, Yael. Paris is not easily forgotten, is it? Something seminal happens there if we keep our eyes and ears open.

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Romantic indeed. The Starbucks line is a winner. It reminds me of the feeling I had on my first excursion into Ciudad Juarez when I encountered a Denny's restaurant in the ProNaf cultural district.

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Hah! Yes, I am sure it seemed bizarre. IMPERIALISM RULES!

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Love the vignette ! Mais pourquoi pas un verre de Chinon? Ou un côtes de Rhône ? Ahh les choix...ahh Paris...🍷

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Ahhh, c'est vrai, mon petit chou! Mais, "Chacun a son gout". n'est-ce pas?

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Been to Paris a few times and it's always felt as romantic and vibrant as I imagined it would. Haven't been since 2019, but would love to get back there sometime. (Sans Starbucks.)

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Sans Starbucks, sans McDonalds. Oooof!

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Place de la chapeaux. Viva la francais. Viva la luminere.

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Nous aurons toujours Paris!

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