Place de la Concorde (compliments of Sam Pflughoeft September 2006)Some places just “grab” you and Paris grabbed me when I first visited her in 1993. (Paris is a lady, you know…) She has welcomed me many times (this will be my seventh visit) and my fascination with her hasn’t changed. Paris reveals her seemingly infinite magnitude—her wide boulevards, her considerable lawns, her massive monuments—as well as her quiet intimacy—unique neighborhoods and side streets, quaint cafes, and the petit markets. I can’t get enough of her beautiful buildings, her cathedrals, her cute little shops, and the mystery of her language. (BTW, I have not misspelled petit in the above sentence. The word for “market” en francais is masculine; thus, the final ‘e’ is absent. FYI, I will italicize all French words that slip into this blog.)
Speaking of the language—several years ago I resumed the study of this beautiful (to me) tongue and chose this as my tool to delay the onset of Alzheimer’s—we hope…. I attended a series of adult education classes and was pleasantly surprised at how much of the vocabulary I remembered from three years of high school French, which we all know was eons ago! Currently, I can “get by” when traveling in France but am anxious to immerse myself in the culture and learn how to understand the response to, “Ou sont les toilettes?” Myrtille, my Parisian tutor, is going to make sure that I do! 
I am almost ready… Obviously, I am anxious—both “eager” and “apprehensive”, opposing definitions of the word per Webster! (My mom said, “I hope you don’t get mugged” to which I replied, “My chances of THAT are more likely in Houston than in Paris!”)
Soon I begin another interesting chapter in my biography; who knew it would all come to pass? What place “grabs” you?
