my first trip to paris was when i was 18 and went with my father. i had been speaking french since i was 10, was fluent, and loved everything french. i decided to major in french and secondary education in college, and spent my junior year studying in paris, where i met my ex-husband in grammar class when i was 21 and fell in love. in 2003, my oldest son and i spent a week in paris together, and every year since then i've wanted to go back, but something always came up. i have learned from this cancer experience not to postpone happiness.
so today i used some of my frequent flyer miles and booked a flight to paris and reserved a hotel room at Hotel Jeanne d'Arc, which is my very favorite part of paris, the marais. i'll be there for two weeks in october, and my oldest son hopefully will be able to join me. i have french friends that i'll be so happy to see again. and i can hardly wait to speak french again all day and hear it all around me.
this photo is of the building i lived in when i went to college in paris in 1975. i took the photo in 2003 when james and i visited. 5, rue philibert delorme, in the 17th arrondisement.
i never dreamed last september, when i heard "you have a small cancer" that the following july i'd be happy, energetic, healthy, and planning my trip to paris.
la vie est belle!
11 comments:
Thank you, you have reminded me that there is hope and things will be good after treatment. thank you x
My husband and I went to Paris a few years ago for a long weekend and we loved it!
I am going to buy a scanner and share some of my adventures with you on my blog then maybe we can compare notes? (we just told the french peopel we were Welsh and not English and they were good with us lol)
dear sara, i'd love to see your photos! i don't even have a dedicated photo scanner; i just use my HP all-in-one and it does a great job for not much money. about hope--those long days of chemo, i would have never thought i could feel this good or this happy again. it feels miraculous. xoxoxo
like Sara said, I am so glad to hear how happy and healthy you are, and ready to travel!! Let's hope this cancer thing is just a little blip for all of us to remember to enjoy life now!
I'm so excited for you and your trip to Paris ... go out and celebrate life. You deserve it!
So glad to hear you'll be travelling to Paris. I'm certain you'll enjoy it more than if you had travelled a year ago! Oh and congrats on finishing treatments :)
By the way, I had no idea you were fluent in french! Of course, mine being a bad slang from Quebec, I'm sure you couldn't understand me!
dear beth, daria, and cebulas - thank you!! xoxoxox
Congratulations Deborah!
Enjoy Paris!
And see, this too has passed. So glad to see you moving on, moving on. Ahh Paris....
Special invitation to all breast cancer bloggers. This month the Being Cancer Book Club is reading “The Adventures of Cancer Bitch” by S. L. Wisenberg, “witty and relentless, surprising and honest. Wisenberg has walked through the Valley of Cancer and she is willing to tell all; this is a cornucopia of breast cancer information as well as a very smart, funny read from an excellent writer."—Audrey Niffenegger, author, The Time Traveler’s Wife.
Book discussions are in Mondays’ posts. Take care, Dennis
I hope you really enjoy your trip to Paris. It is well deserved after all the treatments for breast cancer. It takes so much out of us and in the end we deserve to treat ourselves to something special. I just got back from 3 weeks in Holland and England last week. Time to enjoy life again!
The hotel looks so good on the webpage, I bookmarked it.
Thanks for linking.
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