Theme Thursday - Vacation

My dream vacation. What's yours? I have so many. But here’s just one. No siren song of Lorelei leading me to the Rhine this time. This time I have the gall to stay in France.

Since this is a dream, I don’t have to fly to get there. I wake up in Paris with the birds chirping and the curtains gently billowing into my room at the Hotel Grandes Ecoles in Paris’s 5th Arrondissement.

The air smells of fresh brewed coffee. I get up, stretch, shower and throw on a cotton sundress, maybe periwinkle blue. I don’t need comfortable shoes because it’s a dream. I have a fortifying coffee on the terrace but I shun the continental breakfast in favour of a Crêpe Marron that I buy from a nearby window.

Then I head a little west to the Cour du Commerce Saint-Andre. There I sit and review my maps. In my perfect dream-French I’ll order an espresso. Feet away is the Café Procope which claims to be the oldest operating restaurant in Paris. Aparently the guillotine was perfected just out in front. Procope’s regular visitors included Molière, Voltaire, Napoleon, Georges Sand, Victor Hugo, Oscar Wilde, Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin.

Colette and Picasso once lived within walking distance. I head in the right direction and gaze at their respective windows from the street. I’ve found myself on Rue Bonaparte. Look - there’s Laduree. Maybe I’ll have one of their famous macarons. Yes. A Cassis Violette. Can I afford it? Yes, it’s my dream vacation.

Back towards the hotel I pass the two cafes on the Boulevard St. Germain that were popular with the Existentialists and the Surrealists; Café De Flore and Les Deux Magots. I reflect on the on the writers and artists that must have mused on the terrace - Hemingway, Andre Breton, Sartre, but I don’t go in. I’m heading to the Musee National du Moyen Age. The National Museum of the Middle Ages has conserved the most magnificent examples of ancient textiles in the world. The Lady and the Unicorn tapestries are here.

Wandering around in the Medieval Garden outside, who do I see but the Italian Actor Sergio Castellitto. He’s not French, but it’s my dream and he finds me delightful.

He agrees to accompany me up to the bouquinistes on the Left Bank of the Seine. The antique books and prints are fun to browse through. At one of the stalls I find a first edition of a Colette that I haven’t yet read. A real deal too. Sergio and I enjoy an ice cream cone while walking along the Seine, each picking out our favourite houseboat. He’s wearing a nice summer suit and looks great.

I consent to an invitation to dinner on a Bateau Mouche. Sitting astern I enjoy the asparagus cream and the seared breast of duckling. What will I have for dessert; Crepes Suzette with Raspberry Butter or the Chocolate Mousse with the praline and Hazelnut Crisp?

The candlelight serves to enhance my enjoymnent as I sail by Notre Dame, the Louvre and the illuminated Eiffel Tower. We disembark at the Pont Saint-Michel near Shakespeare & Company. Adieu. I have to get back to my hotel. I have an early start. I'm going on a train trip. But that's for another day.