An Amazing Woman

So much has happened since my last posting, but this isn't the time to discuss any of it! Right now there's just one thing on my mind: the incredible time I had with my mom and Paul when they visited me for the past week!

I know I've been missing my family lately, so I was a kid before Christmas in the days before my mom and Paul arrived. They arrived last Wednesday, and we had a lunch of croque monsieurs before I had to go to class. I rushed over to their hotel that evening, knowing what I'd discover but bursting at the seams to actually see that it had happened. Mom mom was officially engaged!! Now she was the kid on Christmas morning, and she couldn't stop hugging me and smiling. Paul had the ring hand-designed, and the beauty and quality of ring itself is spectacular, but the symbolic meanings he incorporated is priceless. We celebrated with dinner at a cute and scrumptious dinner around the corner, and then we went to the cafe to celebrate with more champagne and friends. (I had told everybody I know here that my mom was getting engaged...and my friends wanted to meet her and be able to celebrate with her and Paul on their special day!)

The next days we met in the late morning for breakfast or lunch, I went to class, mom and Paul explored, went to the Louvre, did "Paris" things...and then we met back up in the evenings for drinks and dinners--Indian food, Moroccan, Traditional French, Italian... Paul and mom stayed in a great hotel that had live jazz music on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, so we'd start or end our nights (somtimes both!) in the hotel lounge. On Saturday we rented a car and drove to the champagne region of France. I had my atlas, but after we missed the first turn-off, we ended up following the "Route Touristique de Champagne" which lead us through every small town in the region, past old churches and around corners big enough for only one small car. We drove past nearly every small champagne "house," (which is literally people's homes with vineyards for backyards, and they sell their family-labeled champagne right there!). We ended up on dirt roads in the hills literally cutting through the vineyards, and we all decided that if we never even arrived in Epernay, we wouldn't feel disappointed! (The "tourist route" was over a 2-hour diversion from the direct path to the main city of champagne!) When we did finally arrive and drove down "Champagne Row" we found closed gates, dark buildings, and no cars. It's winter, and they don't do cave tours and tasting on Saturdays in the winter! Who would've thought!? So we ate a late lunch and then discovered just one champagne house that was open. It was perfect, as it was already nearly 4:00 by then. We toured the caves, tasted vintage and regular champagne, and then got back in the car and this time made it back to Paris in under 2 hours!

I slept over that night in their hotel room (got my own pair of slippers!)...in large part because I just didn't want to leave them...and the next morning was mom's 53rd birthday! We took a scenic walk through the Louvre, over Pont des Artes, through the Palais Royale courtyard and one of the original covered malls ("galleries")...but we also got snow/hail/rained on before arriving at a Cuban restaurant for brunch. Karina met us (after running the Paris half-marathon!) and we had a nice long brunch. Since the weather was still crummy, we ended up back in my apartment--mom napped, Paul read, and I did some homework. We had cups of tea and a little snack and then caught a cab to Moulin Rouge. We skipped the dinner portion and arrived for the show, had a great table, more champagne and wine, and watched a truly French cabaret performance!

Monday morning mom and I had "mother daughter" time, so she met me at my favorite breakfast cafe on my street, took a walk, stopped in some shops, went to a free black and white photo exhibit, took a coffee, and then we walked back to their neighborhood before I had to go to class. Paul took that morning to go to St. Sulpice (and consequently explore the vast majority of the 6th arrondisiment in trying to find the church!), since he was reading The DaVinci Code while he was here. That night we sat at low tables and feasted on tajines at my favorite Moroccan restaurant. Tuesday was their last day, and we had dinner reservations at one of the top 40 restaurants in Paris--Lasserre. I didn't really think about all the implications of a top restaurant in Paris--the city most renowned for its chefs and "haute cuisine"--so we arrived a bit underdressed (Paul had to put on a suit coat), and were then waited on by about 6 different people. The food was the best I think any of us have ever tasted!! We had different wines to go with the different courses, and the flavors mixed together in a way that took food into the realm of art. Exhausted and elated, we took a cab back to the cafe after I received a message from Edith that she would be there with Victor, her dad, and her dad's girlfriend. It was the perfect place for the last night to a superbly perfect trip.

After sleeping over again, mom and I had to say goodbye in the morning. I felt so good too have had the chance to get to know Paul better, to have interesting conversations with him about religion and science and history...to see the way he truly enjoys life...to see the way he and my mom love and support each other...to really feel good about their engagement and the life that they will build together. But after I said goodbye to Paul and he went downstairs, that's when it really hit me that I wasn't ready to say goodbye to my mom. Everything hit me--how much I cherish her for who she is, how much I love the way she has taken control of her life, how much I've come to trust her, and just how much I miss being close to her. As we both sat on the bed crying, the box of kleenex between us, I realized just how connected we are. I am so thankful that I can share my life here with her, that she wants to see and experience even a portion of what I'm doing here, and that she understands why I am still not ready to come home. She "gets" me. And I think I "get" her. I couldn't stop crying when I said goodbye and watched her walk down the hallway. Her being here, our great discussions, the chance to interact in a different space, and just having the time to re-connect and deepen our understanding of each other was the real highlight of their visit.