Final day in Paris and small world-isms

(My capable co-author, Kelley, provides an overview of our relaxing Thursday and who we met on the way to the airport Friday morning…)

One luxury of spending nearly two weeks in a single city, no matter how glorious and fun-filled it may be, is that you can do a bit of extended chilling out and not feel too guilty about it. This is, after all, vacation.

So Thursday morning, with Neil and Nancy out and about, we hung around their place. Lounging around, literally in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, was something we didn’t take for granted and we enjoyed a lazy morning.

It was about 2:00 p.m. before we took a neighborhood stroll, this time to nab the final foodstuffs we planned to take home.

Regular old groceries in France – meat, cheese, butter, milk, eggs come to mind – are much higher-quality than what we so often settle for in Arkansas and in the United States as a whole. The most pedestrian grocery store chocolates, cheese, pre-packaged sliced ham and butter cookies are far superior. I credit their simple, rich ingredients and lack of preservatives (or the other multi-syllabic, chemical sounding things added to our foods).

The metro is faster and more easily navigated than the Parisian bus system, but with one bus line starting a few blocks from us and ending a few blocks from the home of Beth Arnold and her husband Jim Morgan, two Little Rock-turned-Parisian writer friends, we endured an hour of tight turns, crazy traffic and multitudinous stops for our first trip to the 20^th arrondissement (district), in northeastern Paris.

And what an amazing oasis we found in Beth’s and Jim’s pad!

They have 1½ stories of a 2-story house (and you can’t call many Parisian cribs “houses”) with a central courtyard that provides a private outdoor space, a true luxury. The rest of the place is very interestingly appointed and comfortable – and in finest French fashion, upon our arrival these transplanted Arkies quickly brought out two bottles of bubbly, a platter of pastries and some rich hunks of quiche. Add a little music and a whole lot of conversation, including catching them up on mutual Little Rock friends, and it was a dreamy final afternoon in Paris.

The same one-hour bus ride home and a brisk walk along the Seine took us to Al-Mankal, a Lebanese restaurant that is one of Neil’s and Nancy’s favorites. It’s a neighborhood spot they often frequent and where they hosted a big party to celebrate Neil’s 50^th birthday a few years ago. The service from the owner was attentive and personal. Nancy ordered more fabulous food than any of us needed, including the crispest, lightest falafel we’d ever tasted, silky smooth hummus, a mixed grill of chicken and beef, and a huge fresh sole the owner had procured that morning from the local fishmonger and which Neil expertly filleted.

It was a short night’s sleep after packing, but by 8 a.m. Friday morning, Ashli and I were at the curb awaiting our airport shuttle, ready for the return flights home.

Soon after settling into our seats came one of those amazing “small-world syndrome” situations. The mother-daughter pair sitting beside me in the van were from Springfield, Mo., where I worked from 1992-1995 as sports editor of the News-Leader.

Plus they had spent time in Port Aransas, Texas, where one night they were treated to a two-songwriter concert by Larry Joe Taylor and Keith Sykes, which they adored.

This same morning in our home town across the pond, Keith – who I have known for almost 30 years – performed on KATV, Channel 7, to promote the Keith Sykes annual songwriters festival in Hot Springs. He and Larry Joe are two of almost a dozen songwriters we’ll see there next weekend. A portion of the event’s proceeds help fund a scholarship in memory of a son our friends Stacy and Rusty (who spent the first week with us in Paris) tragically lost. And the Springfield mom we’d just met says she might come.

A small world indeed.

______

Thanks a lot, Kelley!

We recommend you visit these sites to learn more about Beth Arnold and Jim Morgan, two very cool and accomplished Arkansans-turned-Parisians. Their sites are full of information about their work and about their travels:

www.chasingmatisse.com

www.betharnold.com

Regarding our lazy Thursday morning: earlier in the week I thought I'd make my trek up the Eiffel Tower on Thursday, but when the morning arrived with gray skies and the temptation of lazing on the couch gazing up at the tower instead, I decided I'd save my tower trek for the next time I'm in Paris. Hopefully I'll get to go again!

Even though the post above brings the blog up to our last day in Paris, there are some final thoughts and conclusions I plan to share in coming days.

Stay tuned!

Ashli