The Paris subway has a nostalgic smell (when I’m not near anyone’s body odor).
It reminds me of when I used to live in Paris instead of being a desperate suburban housewife. I used to walk and walk for miles, absorbing the different architecture, and imagining what it would be like to marry a Frenchman and have children that would grow up speaking French.
The center where I go for mammograms is right in the 8th arrondissement next to my dentist. I love this area.
And I love the waiting rooms in this area – they’re nicer than the ones where I live. They’re called “la salle d’attente.” Such pretty moldings and herringbone wood floors.
I know, I know. It’s probably too much information that I’m telling you about mammogram appointments, but better to “do the needful” as my Indian friends say, then to try and play catch up with your health when the damage has been done. (I have a clean bill of health, by the way).
Actually, since I’ve already given too much information, let me add that I started giggling uncontrollably when the doctor was doing the thorough physical examination. You know, like I was five or something. I felt the need to explain myself so I said, “I was just thinking of what my husband would say if he were here.”
“What would he say?” the doctor asked.
“I don’t know,” I said, hemming and hawing through chuckles. “That he would like to have this job?”
She laughed out loud and said that there are male doctors who can’t believe they get to feel up breasts all day and that people actually pay them for it.
When we were leaving, she pointed to the older doctor and sallied, “He doesn’t even want to retire!”
The older doctor quipped back, “Ah, the proportion of breasts I’ve felt on a professional level and those I’ve felt on a personal level …” Then he let his words die out and shrugged his shoulders, as if to add “it’s a sad state of affairs.”
I love Paris in the morning. Someone pinch me.
Afterwards I met my friend Carol for coffee at Starbucks in La Defense. This is my old stomping ground, you know. I used to live here and I love this place. I’m using a lot of “I love’s.” today. It’s my gratitude post. For health, freedom, friends, life and happiness. Oh – and for Paris.
La Defense has a mall called Quatre Temps (Four Seasons), and I used to spend hours during the winter walking around with the kids here when they were little. It was so nice to be around other people – it kept me from feeling isolated as a young mom.
Finally I came home to my country house – a little chilled. Autumn has started to set in.
So I drank a cup of tea and said hello to all of you.
My life is so hard.
Sigh. If I had a private jet, I would be there this weekend