August 20, 2011

Greetings from my happy place.  After a few days of missing mother terribly and being a blob on my couch at home, I resigned myself to the fact that I just can't expect myself to be productive right now. So I cashed in some airline miles and took my unproductive blobby self to Paris.  At least here I can sit at a cafe and do nothing and still feel like it is something. Paris makes me happy. Rain or shine. I can't fully articulate why. Even though I'm a foreigner, I feel like I belong.  Nobody has addressed me in English, so I guess that scarf I'm wearing is doing its job. My French is flowing too, as if by magic. Even though the exchange rate sucks, I feel like I've rigged the system, as I negotiated a house swap a few days before my departure.  A French woman is now in my guest house and I am in her place in the 16th. I think we all can agree that free is good!  Although I clearly got the lesser of the deal accommodations wise, (this place is like living on a postage stamp), it is unusually quiet for Paris and very safe. And for such a last minute swap, I am lucky to have pulled this off at all. The neighborhood is great and I've already encountered an eclectic cast of characters.  Anne, the French woman with whom I made the exchange, made a point of warning me about the nasty woman who manages the building. Sure enough, as I pushed through the enormous doors into the courtyard, there was Sandra, hands on hips, glaring and demanding who I was. I couldnt help but giggle a little at the accuracy of Anne's description of her. Of course, people like that don't intend to be mean, they just feel powerless and are grasping for some self esteem. So I started asking her for advice about local restaurants, complimented her on her vigilance regarding security of the buildings etc. Flash forward ten minutes, I was inside her apartment clutching her prized list of local family run restaurants and petting her cat "Septembre." Now she waves at me whenever I come and go like she's my new BFF. Oh, my house swapper somehow "forgot" to mention that this apartment is on the fourth floor...with no elevator! Luckily I actually planned to try to get back into shape on this trip. Moving my stuff in was, ahem, a challenge. I had to unpack my huge suitcase and bring up my belongings in smaller bags. I had to do five sets of stairs (aka climb 20 floors) just to move in! Hopefully by the end of two weeks I will be able to make it to the top while carrying a bag of groceries without my heart exploding in my chest. During mother's illness, I let my fitness slide. Here, slacking isnt even an option. These crazy stairs plus a few hours of walking every day should get me back on the right track. The neighborhood I'm in is great. It's just a five minute walk to the Eiffel Tower and also very close to the woods...Bois de Boulogne, which offers some great running trails. Off to bed.  Nite nite! Hi...back again. So I did my first run in the "Bois" this morning at 7am. It was an incredibly gorgeous day. I was little red riding hood skipping off to grandmother's house.  So many trails.  So many options!  Since I'm more of a "road less traveled by" kind of person, I opted for the smaller trails through the thicker woods. It was a labyrinth of passages, so I marked my way with arrows in the dirt so I wouldn't get lost. The Bois de Boulogne are about two and a half times larger than NY's Central Park. Such an idyllic scene, I had no idea it would be this gorgeous! Winks of sunlight peeked though the canopy of trees. Dozens of cute brown bunnies bounced along showing off their fluffy white bottoms. Happy little birds were chirping.  You get the idea.  As I got deeper into the thicket, I came upon a rather fat, solid black rabbit who plopped himself down in the middle of the trail. Have you ever seen a black rabbit in the wild before? His fur was so shiny and so black it almost glowed blue. He didn't seem afraid of me. Maybe a runaway from the city? As I reached out to pet him, he dashed out of sight. There was something spooky about him. I felt a slight chill, and then I laughed at myself for my superstitious thoughts....ooohhh a black bunny wabbit crossed my path. Black cats around the globe would be offended at the suggestion of a malevolent black bunny omen. But as I rounded the corner I saw her. She was about 20 yards from me, a huge woman dressed in all black fetish clothes. What the...? She had on a tight black miniskirt, thigh high black stockings, and towering on impossibly high black platform stilettos. This was 7:30 A.M. people! My jogging came to a screeching halt. We both stood there on the trail facing each other. A cowboy standoff. She cocked her hip to the side. An invitation. There was no way I was coming any closer to this weirdo in the woods. Besides her clothes, something was really wrong.  This woman was HUGE. Way taller than I, and so muscular! OMG...this was no woman. "My what big teeth you have, freaky fetish grandmother!"  My first thought was "I wish I had my camera on me!"  I wanted to take a closer look, but my sense of self preservation trumped my curiosity and I high tailed it back with a speed that undoubtedly broke my personal best. Daddy & Joanna, if you are reading this...don't worry. From now on I won't venture into the woods alone. I'll keep my jogs in town. In fact, I already found a running coach who does "cultural runs" from monument to monument. Anyway, it may be a mute point as it just started raining. The weather suggests a few days of rain are on the way. I guess that means I'll have to rough it at the Louvre. For all the times I've been to Paris, I have never visited the Louvre. I've been saving it for a rainy day.  A day like today.