[I did not include June 29, the day of arrival. I arrived before everyone from NYC with the Parsons Group. They gave me a free breakfast, a croissant and café au lait. In France, they bring a croissant in a basket or usually a plate and a big coffee cup or most often, it is already at the table. Then, they come to table to pour the two pots of coffee and steamed milk simultaneously into your cup. The steamed milk always tastes very sweet. It is all on lots of thick, very white ceramic tableware, but the carafes are stainless.
The other notes were mention of my roommate Charlie from Toledo, a small town in Texas. She is kind of a bit bigger girl, smiley eyes, short dark hair, and proved to be a bit promiscuous with the men from Marseilles, but she had a kind heart. The other girls were soon to be very good friends that I met that day. They were a Tri Delt (Allison from Tuscaloosa) and Kappa Delta (Lisa from Memphis) from the University of Alabama and had southern accents. This was my first contact with southern women and they were very very nice, not unlike my KC/KU girlfriends, but more attune to feminine things it seemed. I hung with them much later in the summer as I realized I was alone so much with Charlie out all hours of the evening with dark men. ]
30 June 1980.
Paula ravished by Frenchman in a SMOOCH! au coin de Boul Saint Germain-des-Près et Boul Saint-Michel.
Woke 7:00. Ran 3 miles. A man kissed me twice when I was asking directions!!! What do you say?! On the forehead-actually took my face in his hands!
[Can you tell I loved it? This has only happened to me one other time upon first meeting someone, though it was actually upon re-meeting someone I had only known a little bit from my past.]
Breakfast: croissant & thé at hotel. We met at le Musée (des arts décoratifs which is the north wing of the Louvre and where we would study and meet in the mornings for our lecture). It is closed to everyone but Parsons students at the present due to renovation.
Orientation: Michael is my lecturer-young, dark beard, long jesus-y hair, nice. Charlotte Lacaze gave a lecture on the History of Paris City Planning & then we bought our subway cards (carte d’orange). I bought some cold chicken & carrot salad which I ate in the Tuileries $(4.50). Then, I walked around ’til two when class began again.
[This is the start of my pleasure in doing things by myself which I still enjoy. It was not by choice in Paris most of the time. But to this day, I love to eat, go to movies, and travel by myself. I sometimes am lonely, but not very often when I am alone. If so, I just go out. I love watching people and meeting new people and I don’t feel compelled to talk so much and can listen and ask questions and learn.]
Map of Paris Stomping Grounds, Day One. from (still very old) 14th edition antique bookstore copy of Karl Baedeker's "Paris and Environs : Handbook for Travelers", published 1900.
This is the first of many maps from my antique 14th edition of Baedeker’s classic field guide to Paris, found and given to me by my mother Ginny Graves. What I love best about this book is his blessing to the reader…
‘Go, little book, God send thee good passage,
And specially let this be thy prayers
Unto them all that thee will read or hear,
Where thou art wrong, after their help to call,
Thee to correct in any part or all!’
-Says everything a writer hopes for.
At 2:00 we had a Decorative Arts lecture au Musée and then we visited the 14th, 15th, & 16th c. pieces.
Walked on Rue St.-Honoré to find American bookstore & needlepoint shop. But needlepoint store was closed. It was very expensive, too.
Very tired so bought dinner in a charcuterie-a little quiche & some kind of spinach/vegetable salad.
Big Day! Lots of walking!
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