Our first outing to Paris…. what to say about this. In the midst of all the class and refinement of the City of Love, crazy came to town when we rolled up in our 12 passenger van. This began with trying to park said van in a tight underground parking garage near the back of Notre Dame (we did manage success, for those of you keeping track.) From there we piled into the tunnels of the metro, trying to make our 11:30 appointment to view the Velasquez exhibit at the Grand Palais. Those efforts were stunted when the metro station we planned on exiting through was closed off due to a demonstration. Same story at the next stop. At this point all we could do was laugh and continue to count off as we walk to the exhibit from the Tuileries. Post exhibit we lunch at a cafe near the Grand Palais, scoring seats right on the corner with the primo people watching. I ate with Kathy. We shared wine, creme brûlée, and life stories. Kathy compared Jim’s teaching to that of a good tennis instructor. A great tennis instructor will hit the ball to you so you can actually play the game and enjoy the experience. A tennis instructor who claims to be great will slice balls at you left and right to prove to you (and themselves) that they are better than you at playing tennis. We all know that to truly learn something new, one must enjoy it enough to have the passion and drive to continue on, even when it gets frustrating. Jim makes the learning enjoyable- always with a positive spin, a willingness to help, and a calming tone of voice that soothes the stressed voices inside our heads.
After lunch we split up a little. One group painted (because a bucket list is something we don’t take lightly.) Jim really knocked one out of the park with his painting- you should see it. One group went to see an exhibit on tattooing at the anthropology museum. I walked to the Eiffel Tower by myself because I’ve always wanted to and it was on my own personal bucket list. We all began to congregate at the same cafe, discussing our day over tonic waters and beers, until we were all together again. We all piled back in our 12 passenger van and cruised on back to the country. This motley crew is going back to Paris again next week to visit the Musee D’Orsay. Stay tuned for part deux.
