Putting Paris on the Back Burner

We had decided begrudgingly a couple of months ago that the need to redo our rapidly rotting redwood back deck would take precedence over our usually insurmountable need to visit Paris, which we had done eight of the last ten years. Necessity subsumed our sadness.  A week ago, however, Jody brought home a new guidebook on Paris.

Opening it one night after dinner she said with a wistful whine,We had decided begrudgingly a couple of months ago that the need to redo our rapidly rotting redwood back deck would take precedence over our usually insurmountable need to visit Paris, which we had done eight of the last ten years. Necessity subsumed our sadness.

A week ago, however, Jody brought home a new guidebook on Paris.

Opening it one night after dinner she said with a wistful whine,"How can we not go there?"

"I know we've got the Skymiles, but I don't want to be falling through the porch all summer," I said thinking about not being able to eat meals outside in warm weather and reminiscing about the joys of Paris cafés.

A few days later she flew to Chattanooga to visit our daughter and her husband, leaving me to deal with the house and her cat for a week. It was an issue of trust.

Towards the end of the week it snowed and my plans for outdoors recreation were scotched. I rarely go to the movies when the sun is shining, so the inclement weather made it a perfect day for self-indulgence. I chose the new French film Rue Montaigne, not just because it took place in Paris but also because Sidney Pollack was in it.

Sidney and I go way back, at least for the past ten years when Jody and I walked into Robert Redford's restaurant in Park City during the Sundance Film Festival. The lobby was packed and there was an hour wait. The Maitre d'Hotel saw us at the door and beckoned us forward and, without a word, ushered us to table in the back room. I was fifty-four, Jewish, with curly grey hair, and a prominent nose, a description that could fit Sidney Pollack save for the fact that he was eight years older.

Several months later at the Utah Opera during intermission a man came up to me and said, "I really like what you're doing to your place at Sundance."

"Thanks," I said.

Afraid of breaking my cover I moved into a conversation with some friends.

Just last week I was making round at the local pediatric hospital when a nurse said to me, "You know you look like that actor."

"Yeah I know," I said, "Sidney Pollack."

"Right," she said. "You were an oncologist who murdered his wife in the second episode of The Sopranos."

"Really, " I said. "I've never watched it." For the rest of the week I heard from various friends who said they had thought of me while watching the show. Strangely comforting.

So as the spring snowstorm continued, I took myself to the movies. There were three of us in the theater. Rue Montaigne, directed by Daniele Thompson, is one of the most evocative films I have seen recently. It takes place in the 8th arrondissement in and around the Téatre de Champs Elysées, and a small neighborhood café, Bar des Téatres.

Not wanting to review the film, suffice it to say that Sidney plays himself speaking both in broken English and French trying to convince a French actress who is hoping to break free of the soap opera that has made her famous to play Simone de Beauvoir in a play he has written. I studied his timing and phrasing convinced I could master it in a pinch.

By the film's last kiss I was in tears, perhaps because I wished I were in it.

A few days later I sent an email to Bon Marché inquiring, in French, whether they sold Achille socks abroad. For their significance read Bonjour Paris’ The Meaning of Parisian Socks. I received the following response:

Monsieur,

Nous vous remercions de votre message dans lequel vous nous demandez s'il est possible d'acheter des chaussettes "e.g.achille" aux Etats-Unis.

Nous avons le regret de vous informer qu'il n'existe pas de point de vente "e.g. Achille" aux Etats-Unis.Toute fois nous restons à votre disposition pour toutes informations supplémentaires

Dans l'attente de votre prochaine visite sur notre site,

Cordialement.


Lisa ATTIA
Directrice Relations Clientèle
 
 
Despite the rejection (I could only buy Achille at Bon Marché) I felt closer to being in Paris. Maybe we won't quite finish that back deck after all.