Bonjour á Jamie

Picture Above (Elyse, Maureen, and Jamie)

Good day, my sweetheart. As I (Maureen) plan a trip to Paris next month for Kathryn and me, I am seeing you in all the old familiar places, as the song goes. So many of the streets in St Germain, on the Ile St Louis, around the Musée D’Orsay, and of course your beloved Place des Vosges, are popping into view on my maps. It’s a good thing really, because the memories sharpen my senses, and enhance my anticipation. I can’t wait for Kathryn to see and walk these steps for herself, and fall in love with Paris, c’est possible, the way her big sister did. Our stay in Paris is short this time around, because we are on our merry way to Italy, and our own first-time European adventure. But I feel certain she will want to travel to France again, and this is just the beginning.

Kathryn has spoken of her longing for you to be with us, and I have to trust that you will be. After all, why would you miss an opportunity to, shall we say, direct us? I promise you I will be rushing about, seeing and tasting as much as we can. I have obsessed over selecting our hotel du charme (is there any better tourist description?) for location and atmosphere, and we are in walking distance of everything we need to see, a few blocks from the Seine, from Notre Dame, The Louvre. I remember so well, when we were walking all over Paris with Elyse that cold December nine years ago, how you were urging me to keep up the pace, saying it was good for me (poor aging Mamon). How wonderful to sit down in that restaurant, warm, tired and cozy (yes, Jamie, your two-nights-in-a-row La Maison du Jardin on Rue Vaugirard, where you fell in love with codfish, of all things, as only the French can cook it.)

You also fell in love with La Madeleine, the beautiful church dedicated to Mary Magdalene, where behind the high altar there is no crucifix, but a statue depicting her ascending into heaven. It was the only church we saw so honoring the sacred feminine.

I’m remembering too the joy of your high school days’ trip with ‘The Flash’ when you and I boldly took one night for ourselves, leaving our soccer friends and parents so that we could ramble in the Opera Quarter, and have dinner a deux. I read recently there actually is a lake under the Opera Garnier, likely the origin of the Phantom story. Amazing, right?

So, in April, I’ll be playing with the time/space continuum, and planning to see you in the city of light. I don’t think you’ll disappoint us.

And although it’s been said before, in truth, “we’ll always have Paris.”

– Maureen F. O’Brien