In a few\u00c2\u00a0days I will fly to Paris, as much for me as for many of my friends,\u00c2\u00a0a statement and a dream as well as a journey.\u00c2\u00a0Memory Paris,\u00c2\u00a0dream Paris, pastry-and-coffee Paris, the ache Paris,\u00c2\u00a0Piaf Paris,\u00c2\u00a0Hemingway Paris,\u00c2\u00a0painting Paris. All-balled-into-my-image-of-my-romantic-self Paris. Kerouac Paris, Modigliani, Picasso, Somerset Maugham, Muslim riots, Les Miz, JFK-and-Jackie Paris. Sitting at a cafe, writing in a small notebook Paris. As if you can’t do that in a Salt Lake City Starbucks. As if I won’t get bored, stiff, and squinty in the poor rainy light and bail out with my notebook to my apartment desk.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I’m not a big-city person, but here I am returning to this biggest of French cities for the fifth time.\u00c2\u00a0A wary introvert pulling two roller suitcases heavy with books and shoes, light on the clothing. In 1971 I took a backpack and a guitar. In 2007 I’m bringing\u00c2\u00a0too many books. 36 years later and you’d think\u00c2\u00a0my French would be\u00c2\u00a0fantastic. Vietnam then, Iraq now. Hoping to climb Montmartre and watch\u00c2\u00a0Americans. Planning to go to the Louvre many times and watch artists. Going out to walk\u00c2\u00a0morning streets and\u00c2\u00a0draw outlines for future paintings.<\/p>\n
Maybe\u00c2\u00a0it will be enough of Paris this time. I’ll be done with her, solve the riddle of myself in Paris, fill in the puzzle of my promises to keep going back. Maybe next time a smaller town, a calm country plein-air kind of place where dawn patrols don’t need to bag up and\u00c2\u00a0hose down the revelries of the night before.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In a few\u00c2\u00a0days I will fly to Paris, as much for me as for many of my friends,\u00c2\u00a0a statement and a dream as well as a journey.\u00c2\u00a0Memory Paris,\u00c2\u00a0dream Paris, pastry-and-coffee Paris, the ache Paris,\u00c2\u00a0Piaf Paris,\u00c2\u00a0Hemingway Paris,\u00c2\u00a0painting Paris. All-balled-into-my-image-of-my-romantic-self Paris. Kerouac Paris, Modigliani, Picasso, Somerset Maugham, Muslim riots, Les Miz, JFK-and-Jackie Paris. Sitting at a cafe, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathygrossman.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathygrossman.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathygrossman.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathygrossman.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathygrossman.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathygrossman.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathygrossman.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathygrossman.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathygrossman.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}