I was just having lunch with Carole who recently returned from Paris (and other places) and we were talking about how beautiful Notre Dame Cathedral is. It is my favourite building in the world! Then, this postcard came in the mail. Wrongly addressed so can't keep it...an old student of Jim's who got confused. She is a great old dear (French of France) who audited a number of his courses and always gave Jim a bottle of excellent French Champagne at the end of each course.
Carole and I were also talking about our emotional attachment to Vancouver especially the view at English Bay. I was reflecting on these emotional attachments I have to places. Certainly the south of France rates very high. And I think my love of Notre Dame is also a strong emotional attachment that happened in our first few minutes of our first trip to Paris in 1972.
We had travelled from England via the Hovercraft and then the train. Pouring rain in England, many delays for the Hovercraft because of stormy seas and a rough ride over the Channel, then the train to Paris in darkness, getting the Metro to St. Michel so underground, worrying about our hotel room still being available since it was close to midnight and the peak of summer (before the days of credit card guarantees), still jetlagged from the cross Atlantic flight, and dead tired from a horrendous day of travel.
We walked out of the St. Michel Metro station and into what seemed like a fantasy world. It was a warm balmy night and teeming with people. We were just so amazed by the Hausmann buildings, the cafés, everything. We walked down to the Seine and saw Notre Dame...I was in love! All the fatigue and worry lifted. Having a hotel room didn't matter as I could have stayed up all night.
They were just about to give up our hotel room so we got lucky. Then we went out to a café until 4am talking to people...well, Jim did most of the talking because I didn't speak French then but nothing mattered!
