04 January 2009

THE PARIS JOURNALS SIXTH ENTRY December 23


The least surprising occurrence of the trip was this morning when I came upon a former student (I tell ya with over 2,000 of em there’s no avoiding one wherever I go). She happened to be one of my all time favorites. She just finished her degree at some place called Yale and is living in Paris for a year. She was also a starting forward on the school soccer team I coached. I’d have bet money I’d have run into one of my former charges.

Later in the day I saw a huge group of people just a bit too old to be former students. These were the many re-interred dead whose bones can be found in the catacombs. Most had shuffled off this mortal coil many, many centuries ago. What a long strange walk that was. Youngest daughter hated it. Wet floors, low dripping ceilings creepy bones about. You can’t please everybody.

I continue to marvel at the metro. Still haven’t waited more than six minutes for a train, usually somewhere between seconds and two minutes.

Meandered about on my own for a couple of hours and stumbled upon the Pantheon. Just another awe-inspiring Paris site.

Found a movie theater near our apartment that plays old American films. In the evening I popped in to see The Black Swan (1942) a true pirate swashbuckler featuring Tyrone Power and Maureen O’Hara and one of my faves, Thomas Mitchell. It was a nice break from all this magnificence.

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