An American in Paris

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Many years ago, when I was a junior in college, a group of students and I spent our one month short semester studying law and politics in England and France, and subsequently traveling an additional two weeks in Europe. We visited many countries and enjoyed the different cultures, the food, and the opportunity to visit places many of us can only dream about. Some memories are crystal clear - traveling on trains with strangers, climbing the steps of the Coliseum, eating goulash soup in Germany, having tea at Harrods in London, riding a cable car to the top of a mountain in Switzerland, and the horrors of attending my first and last bullfight in Spain on my 21st birthday.

These days I am mostly an armchair tourist. During the past three months my travels have been vicarious--my 21 year old daughter is studying in Paris for a semester during her junior year of college. Every day, through the modern day miracles of email and Skyping, I am revisiting Europe with my daughter as my guide.

The Paris I remember is not the Paris my daughter is experiencing. I remember the crowded sidewalks on the Champ-Elysees with people speaking a language I could not understand, visiting the Louvre and Notre Dame, riding a tourist bus past the Moulon Rouge, side streets smelling of trash, and a hotel room with eight twin beds and cut up newspapers serving as toilet paper in the communal bathroom.

My daughter’s Paris is truly a city of lights. She lives in an apartment with a woman who teaches English at a French school and three other American students. The apartment is near a park and within one block of the Metro and a French bakery. She tells me the people are attractive and well dressed, the streets beautiful and lined with trees, and the food delicious. She speaks French and she loves the language. Many of the museums and art galleries do not charge admission to students, traveling is easy on the metro, and the city has an active night life. My daughter says she has finally found a city that has all she needs to live. While I sit home content to pass my days with the simple joys in life, my daughter is stretching her wings and enjoying her new found freedom. I feel like I have come full circle. My daughter's happiness is mine.

It is while you are patiently toiling at the little tasks of life that the meaning and shape of the great whole of life dawn on you. ~Phillips Brooks
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