Être. To Be.

What do you want to do in Paris? She asked.
I only want to be in Paris. He said.
We don't need to "do" anything.
But why? She smiled and shook her head in that way he loved.
Because Paris is where we have been so happy, so many times before.
Do you recall, before the children were born, our first trip here, the
small hotel, the St. Germaine des Pres on the Rue Bonapart, where we
walked so far my feet hurt and I got a blister and would not leave the
room and you said,
"I am not going to come to Paris and just sit in my room" and you went
out and bought me a pair of slippers so I would have no excuse and you
made me go back out and explore the city. I still have those slippers
at home thirty five years later. I could not forget your face that day.
Lovely.
And you were so into cooking, you took that course with Julia Child in Cambridge and remember the Gourmet Magazine article about the four famous young chefs of Paris so you found the Tan Dinh resturant and we ate there and met the chef Robert Vifian and that was in the 1980's, I wonder what he is doing now?
And the time we brought Mari when she was a little girl and we walked
up the Champs Elysee and found a little bookstore and bought her a
Madeline book?
And later, when we came with all three kids and walked up to the top
of the Eiffel tower but all they wanted was a Smurf ice cream and it
cost $10.00 for the Smurf plastic cup? We stayed at the Burgundy
Hotel, the carpets were threadbare then.
And the times I came to work as a volunteer at the American Church and I lived in the apartment upstairs at the church for a week and then you came and we stayed at the Lutitia Concord on the Boulevard Raspail.  Those were good days.
And then we came back when the children were gone, off to college, and
James went off to war and we prayed he would come home safely, and
later the girls were married and having children, it is good Annie got
to travel on her own and go to exotic places like Greece and Turkey
and China with Kyle, and then Mari and Alan went to Australia and had
their own trips to Europe, and then Allison joined our family and now
with almost ten grandchildren we have so many more people to introduce
to Paris. Each little child needs to be able to find his or her own
Paris. It is the City of Light, of inspiration, of beauty. The door
is open, what do you want to do with the rest of your life? The
Moveable Feast has been fantastic for we knew and loved Paris when we
were young.   We have carried the memories and rekindled them for forty
years. A rich heritage that will be passed to the next generation. Psalm 16.

Être. To Be. Je suis un eleve. Tu es un enfant. Il est fatigue.
Elle est belle. Nous sommes content. Oui, nous sommes tres content.
Je suis en Paris. Tu es ma femme.

We will come again. Simply To Be in Paris.
Dale