Bonne Anniversaire
Paris Kiosque - July 1997 - Volume 4, Number 7
Copyright (c) 1997 Sharon Huck - used with permission
Love and romance come in many guises. Sometimes they come with a flood of
passion, a heart-pounding giddiness. Other times they arrive with warm
memories of places visited and experiences shared. One such memory returns
us to Paris and the top of the Eiffel Tower.
We had visited Paris before as a young couple struggling to meet the
expectations set forth in our well-thumbed copy of Europe On Five
Dollars a Day. But years had passed and circumstances had changed. We
were long-married and able to travel in relative comfort. We were using
Europe on Twenty-five Dollars a Day and introducing our son Kevin
to the sights and thrills we had remembered.
We had spent three days strolling along the quais and the Champs-Elysees,
gazing at the Arc de Triomphe and watching the street performers in the
plaza before the newly constructed Pompidou Center. Given his youth, we
were pleasantly surprised at our son's mature reactions to the
Impressionist's paintings in the Jeu de Paume, the Mona Lisa in the
Louvre, and the Rose Window in Notre Dame Cathedral. He particularly
enjoyed pushing the buttons on the Métro maps and figuring out which train
we would take to our next destination. The musicians and singers of the
Métro stops fascinated him, and he delighted in dropping francs into their
opened guitar cases. Disappointed that no guillotine remained in the Place
de la Concorde and that the Bastille had been torn down, he showed a young
man's fascination with the blood-and-guts aspect of history.
We had saved the best for last. Kevin's twelfth birthday fell on our final
night in Paris. We wanted to make it a celebration he'd never forget. We
had called ahead, and in our best high-school French, made a reservation for
dinner in the Jules Verne Restaurant on the Eiffel Tower. We had ordered a
cake (un gâteau) for Kevin and hoped the wait staff understood our
request for twelve candles (avec douze bougies).
Though it had been a humid July day, the breeze high above the Seine brushed
our faces as we overlooked the City of Lights from the observation deck. The
tourist elevators had stopped for the day, and we felt among the privileged
few to partake in relative privacy of one of the most magnificent views in
the world.
We stood in awe watching the red sunset behind Sacré-Coeur at the summit of
Montmartre and its pink and orange reflection in the pools before the Palais
de Chaillot. Silently we congratulated ourselves on providing the memory of
a lifetime for the mature, cultured young gentleman that Kevin had become on
his "Grand Tour." With the magnificence of Paris laid out at our feet, I
turned to my son and asked gently, "Kevin, what are you thinking right now?'
Expecting a nugget of inspired brilliance, I was dismayed to hear him say,
"I wonder how my Little League team is doing tonight." I was crushed! Despite
our best efforts, our son's mind was still back in the all-American
pastime.
To most, thoughts of Paris bring back memories of lost passion, lingering
kisses along the quais, whispered conversations in sidewalk cafés. But my
heart fills with love when I recall this light-hearted memory of my son's
childhood.
To this day, eighteen years later, whenever someone expects us to hold forth
with some brilliant reply, our stock answer, followed by knowing smiles all
around, is "I wonder how my Little League Team is doing tonight."
Footnote: Kevin returned to the Eiffel Tower on his honeymoon and told his
new bride the story of his twelfth birthday. The beauty and romance of the
city had not been lost on him; it just took time for it to bloom in his
heart.
Sharon Huck contributed "Bonne Anniversaire" as part of the Travelers' Tales,
Francescape, and Paris Pages writing contest for the book
Travelers' Tales Paris.
