Who would imagine that I would gush like a small boy, riding the Bateau Mouche once again for the umpteenth time!
To really appreciate living in Paris, France, one has to learn how to enjoy good food and have best friends to share happy times. And this we did as Muse Melissa Lopez and jet setter Beth Jackson literally dragged me and Pål out of our still unfinished home renovation to enjoy a particularly sunny day in the fall.
Melissa ordered a van to pick us up and off we went down the river Seine to board a new gigantic ship that had a rooftop terrace for easy viewing the sights of Paris, stretching from the Tour Eiffel to the rising from its ashes literally, the Notre Dame.
Who could say no to a nippy day when the leaves start to fall as they change colors in autumn. With bottles of chilled rosé wine, it was the happiest boat ride I had for an hour and a half going up and down the river Seine, watching lovers and joggers alike on both sides.
There were new hidden parks by the river’s edge where people danced the tango, bikes and rollerblades cutting through the crowds. Picnic tables were packed with students and families. Life can be so simple and yet so fulfilling when a city as dizzying as Paris offers to its citizens decent places to relax and enjoy some clean air by the river in one of the world’s biggest metropolis!
I hope my beloved City of Smiles, Bacolod, adopts such a project so that it’s citizenry can enjoy living in it and on top of it all, provide a viable tourism industry that doesn’t simply rely on its delicious chicken barbecue…
And speaking of food, Beth invited us for a treat in my next door restaurant where she satisfies her craving for their home-cooked specialties like a French string bean salad mixed with juicy chicken liver and her fav Burgundy wine, Chassagne-Montrachet. Le Connétable resto is just a napkin’s throw away from our home and was the perfect ending to a most enjoyable sunny day in autumn.
Hemingway was wrong when he said, “Paris is a movable feast.” It can only happen under the wooden beams that used to be a Hotel particulier belonging to Cardinal de Retz in 1340!
MY PRAYER
Forgive us the wrongs we have done, as we forgive the wrongs that others have done to us. Matthew 6:12, TEV*
