CE PLANE POUR MOI

Be sure to check out Pam and Bob's Secrets of the Louvre. From Germany, we went to Paris for 3 1/2 days and we hit the streets from about 8am until 10pm. We went to at least three museums a day, only made it to one cemetery -- Bob took about 20 pictures of Francois Truffaut's grave -- hit all the major cathedrals, went to a cool Henri Cartier Bresson exhibit and hit a bunch of used record stores in the Latin Quarter. I was so tired that I almost cried more than once, but it was worth dehydration and foot blisters, I swear.

Most of the time we did okay feeding me. We had our little phrase book and I could point out "I am a vegetarian" in three languages. When wait-people aren't used to vegetarians, they're often totally useless.

I run into that in this country too. You tell the wait-person that you're a vegetarian and they look at you like you just said "I can only eat things that can easily be shoved up my left nostril." One lady in Paris shook her head and then brought me a HUGE plate of green beans. They tasted delicious, but when you're hiking around the city 10 hours a day, 60 calories worth of green beans don't go too far. Of course, I made up the caloric deficit with chocolate and alcoholic beverages.

We found a couple of good vegetarian restaurants. One we called "The Happy Carrot" because of the neon sign out front. Instead of using the word "organic" they use the word "biological." When I was offered a bottle of biological wine, of course I ordered it because it sounded so funny.

FAMILY STUFF

After France we went back to Germany to visit my Auntie and Onkel who live in a spa town and we spend several days there recuperating from Paris. I'm not going to tell any family stories in this letter, except to say that my Tante Hilla REALLY does iron your socks and underwear and I have Bob as my witness.

Also I realized that it's good to spend time with your relatives because you start to see how these character traits that you have that you've always been afraid were embarrassing neuroses and you worried about where you picked them up and how much therapy it will take to cure them, then you watch your family and realize these things are totally genetic and you just need to embrace them as part of yourself like you accept your short legs, bulbous nose or stubby fingers.

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PHOTO: Pam and Bob in Florence. PHOTOGRAPHER: Some random bystander.

Posted: 4.18.99
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