Sunset on the Seine

I love Judith's missives from the City of Lights - here's another one from late April that brought back fond memories of balmy nights spent by the Seine...although I think Aline needs to move, or talk to a good therapist. Phobias are actually curable.

A beautiful, sunny, spring day in Paris. Aline picked me up in her car and we drove to the nearby Luxembourg Museum, which is just a few blocks from my apartment. Drove around and around trying to find parking on the packed streets and finally did. Would have been faster to go on foot, however, Aline lives on an island, the Ile de la Cite, and has a phobia about walking across a bridge and can only leave the island by car. So though we live 5 minutes apart, she needs to drive. The exhibit was Fralippo Lippi and his son Fralippino Lippi who was conceived with a beautiful, young religious woman in a scandalous liaison in the 1400s somewhere in the Tuscan hills. The paintings, with many, many Madonnas and baby Jesuses, were lovely to me only for their vivid colors after many centuries, excellent awareness of perspective, and three dimensional quality in some. We then went to lunch outdoors at a cafe and talked about our book on France, the men, the women, the story. Sat for hours, no one bothered us, didn't even bring a tab. So it is - the table belongs to you.

Decided to go to the theater in the evening to see two Albee plays and then Robert called and said rain was coming in the next few days and we should spend this evening on the Pont des Arts, a pedestrian bridge over the Seine where people congregate on warm evenings and spread out on the planks and have picnics, with wine, and live musicians. So upon his arrival at my flat I took took a blanket and flatware, paper plates and cups stuffed into a big canvas bag and we went to the fabulous food store and bought roast chicken, a big slice of pate, a bottle of wine, bread, salads, and and off we set for the bridge. We found a good spot, spread out, and got out all the goodies. People gathered all through the evening with parties of 2, 4, 20 all picnicking, sharing wine, listening to music from the live saxes, and watching the setting sun turning the river red. Both Robert and I felt that we were in Paradise - the beauty of the river and the big tourists boats sliding under the bridge, the palaces along the banks, the people who know how to enjoy, without much fuss or much money, just good food, wine, and friends. We sat and ate and drank for about three hours and when the sun set and it got chilly, we walked to his flat a few blocks away and watched Pan's Labyrinth while outside his windows the boats on the Seine with brilliant night lights floated up and down the Seine looking like big space ships landing on the river.

Everyone should picnic on the Pont des Arts on a warm night sometime in their lives.
xxx
J

Not the Pont des Arts. Not even the view from the Pont des Arts. But the only picture of a Parisian bridge that I have in iPhoto, so it'll have to do.