Hercule Poirot, I presume?

Many people who read this can say they have been to Paris, but it is someplace I never longed to see until just recently.  Having heard both positive and negative reports, I guess I want to find out for my self just what it would be like to spend some time in France.  Perhaps this book is a bit on the slurpy side of romantic but it contains a marvelously well portrayed period in history from someone who knows her subject. So I just read.

The recent movie , "Midnight in Paris," captivated me and further prompted a search for all things French.  There are other old movies, and songs, with similar titles that clutter my mind; I recall one with Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman, those with Audrey Hepburn at her finest, not to mention Catherine De'Neuve and Juliette Binoche and little sparrow, Edith Piaf.  I envison hopping on a train and encountering Hercule Poirot.  My friend visited the gardens in Provence, which was the highlight of her trip.  I, too, would like to see that part of the country.

Particularly, I have become an admirer of French antiques. Generally expensive but one can find a piece for a reasonable price if one knows what to look for.  Dealers travel to France simply to buy and sell again the wares found there so there never seems to be a shortage of authentic French antiques or French inspired decor.  I'm not an expert, but I know what I love when I see it.  Nothing too exotic as my taste is not too ostentatious, yet interesting, a good conversation piece..  The King Louis XIV silver plate tableware  I own is the closest I will ever get to French aristocracy, but it is lovely.

I'm reminded of Louis Armstrong when I think of Paris (is that because he played in the French Quarter in N. O.?) and Madeleine, heroine for little girls who were disciplined by nuns.  And the subjects of history and art must take up a myriad of volumes in their libraries.  But I would just like to take my granddaughter there, or at least plant the seed of traveling there in her head so she might go someday while backpacking through Europe, even if I never make it there; I hope she spends all day in a museum, takes a boat down the Seine, stays in a small village, tastes the food, smiles at everyone she sees,  and buys a 1.5 oz. of French perfume as a souvenier.