...and with Marcy

Oh! the places we went on Marcy’s whirlwind tour of Paris. Paris is the prettiest city I have ever seen, and so an easy tour to give. But besides that, Paris was Marcy’s first stop in the developed world after her experience working and living in Cameroon, Africa. So she was especially easy---she just wanted to eat DAIRY! (At one point, I think we stocked my mini-fridge with more varieties of yogurts and puddings than the Monoprix mega grocery store.)

We bopped about almost* without stop.
*Almost except for 3-4 hour long dinners

Marcy’s friend Syd came down from London for the weekend to bop with us. Syd is such a globe trotter that, between his stories and Marcy’s from Africa, I felt like I traveled the world in that weekend!



Who can take so much travel without a little vertigo? I don’t know if it was the elevator trip that we took to the top of the Eiffel Tower or the actual being at the top of the Eiffel Tower that was so disorienting. You can see from this series of pictures that none of us could tell which end was up!







(Marcy is a good photographer, non?)



Despite Syd’s vow that every time you go to the top of the Eiffel Tower, you will witness a marriage proposal, we unfortunately did not see Tom Cruise or anyone else get engaged. But we still saw plenty of Paris and the ‘burbs. At such a height, we caught a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty (the spec just behind the 3rd bridge up from the bottom of this picture) even with New York City exactly 5,849 km away.





(Incidentally, these are two of the cities where Marcy has hung her hat in the last year….We are missing San Diego!)

Standing on the top level put the “wind” in “whirlwind” tour of Paris. I think the gusts up there were rattling my brain, and that is why I look so deliriously happy to be at the exact spot where France hoisted its flag for the first time after Nazi occupation. (Merci beaucoup USA!)



I eventually had to return to earth and to lab. But Miss Marcy and Syd continued the tour. To Montmartre, one of the highest (natural) points in Paris. Marcy tracked down the Moulin Rouge, a symbol of Montmartre's pre-WWII artist’s haven. Finding the famous cancan theatre was very special for that dance fanatic! (I think after posing for this picture, Marcy started to recruit dancers for FRANZA!)



The trip ended on another high: We saw, from one of the very top rows of (one of) the Paris Opera house, LE Paris Opera Ballet’s production of Don Quixote. Check THAT off my To Do In This Lifetime list. The Paris Opera Ballet puts on a fraction of the ballets in a season as the New York City Ballet or ABT. But when it does, it pulls out all the stops. Don Q is a show-stopper all around! Marcy and I were especially impressed by the elaborate set!




Maybe it was the thrill of being at the ballet. Or all the travel. Or too much dairy. I like to blame it on Marcy for being a vehicle of some mysterious African-borne stomach bug. Because I started to feel sick up in our top row. And, what do you know was waiting in my mailbox when we got home from the ballet? MA CARTE VITALE! Finally. The magic green health card that is my pass to hypochondria-land (aka, France). With it, I can see any doctor I want and pay even less than the pittance somebody not in the Social Security system would pay. I considered seeing a “medecin” for motion sickness!