Oh it is April again! Every few months I am compelled to go online and check out the fares to Paris, hoping the price has fallen dramatically.
How I remember the movie "April In Paris". Do you?
Watching reruns of old movies with my mother include some of the best memories of my life.
The 1952 film starred Doris Day and Ray Bolger. The theme of the movie is Paris and love.
A chorus girl is mistakenly invited to an international art exposition to represent the United States in place of Ethel Barrymore. Of course Doris Day is a lot more lively than Ethel could ever be. Doris's rendition of "April in Paris", has to be one of the prettiest songs I have ever heard her sing.
I could definitely identify with Doris's "chorus girl" role as I started in musical theatre by playing in the chorus of "Oliver", and then "How To Succeed In Business".
In the theatre I met a friend named Oliver, but somehow I never learned to wildly succeed in business. Oh perhaps temporarily now and then. But my artsy, smartsy creativity always seems to take precedence over my lack of proclivity to abide by rules and corporate protocols.
Just like everyone should go see Washington, D.C. during cherry blossom time, so should everyone spend at least one April of their lives in Paris. Or May. Whichever the case may be.
I will never forget the blossoms that fell on my head as I rested on a bench, after I spent 45 minutes speedwalking along the Champs Elysees to see the Arch of Triumph. I was out of breath, tired and thirsty, on my way back to the hotel...trying to arrive before dusk.
I sat down and felt something so lightweight fall on my head I thought surely it must be a bird mistaking my blond head for a bird-bathroom. When I reached up, a beautiful white blossom fell down my shirt. It was then I noticed to my pleasure, all the little white blossoms all around my feet. That was May of 2015. My son had been kind enough to take me on the vacation of my dreams.
Spring in Paris has to be the perfect time to go. It is not blisteringly hot, but gets warm in the afternoons. Even if you have to brave a few rain showers, it is far better than trying to find cool shelter in the sweltering heat of August, when many Parisians leave town for cooler climes.
In April and May men and women alike are still wearing their dashing scarves to keep out the cool morning breezes. With flowers and trees waking up everywhere your spirit itself seems brought to life in the city of light and love.
Perhaps it will be April or May that I next take my trek to the everlasting city that could not be destroyed in World War II. It's many treasures, thank God, were spared. It's history and people preserved, as they should be for all time.
A luminous city once visited, can never die within one's heart. Paris will always leave its eternal sparkling presence on the spirit of everyone fortunate to visit her, no matter what time of year.
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