I just watched Julie & Julia, although why it took me this long to watch a movie about some of my favorite subjects (food, Paris, food, writing, and Paris. Oh, and Paris.) I will never know. I'll be honest, Julie Powell kind of bugged me. Julia Child, on the other hand, rocks my socks. I hope to goodness that was a reasonably accurate portrayal of her and her husband, because I love them both; my Monday to-do list includes going to the library to check out her autobiography.
What really got me about this movie, though, was the Child's time in Paris, shot on location. All of my own memories of those same places came flooding back, from sitting on green benches under the trees next to Notre Dame de Paris, to buying produce in the open-air market, to going to a baptism in Mairie des Lilas, even learning to cut onions from a French chef (although that wasn't at Le Cordon Bleu). Let's put it this way: I got choked up during all the really emotional segments, but I shut the door and cried at every scene in Paris. Even the little blue street numbers conjured up happy memories. sigh. I've told a few people that I wouldn't want to actually live in Paris again, but that's a lie. I love that city, however pernicious the cigarette smoke and tour groups; as cliché as it sounds, Paris taught me how to live. When I got back Grandpa called me Sabrina Fair, and although I'm no Julia Ormond, that's how I feel. Her words are better than mine:
"It's strange, it's gone by so fast, Gertrude Stine said America is my country and Paris is my hometown, I'll always feel that way about Paris I want so much for you to know what it's meant to me. I cross the street some is playing La Vie En Rose. They do it for the tourists but I'm always suprised at how it moves me. It means seeing life through rose colored glasses. Only in Paris where the light is pink does that song make sense, but I'll have it in my pocket when I get home, and carry it with me where ever I go."
It wasn't so long ago that I lived there! I walked those streets, rode that Metro, ate that food, fell in love with those people. I had ramen for lunch today. Ramen. Two months ago my cheap lunch would have been a demi-baguette. Julia (at least in the movie) seemed to love Paris the way I did, and when she and her husband moved my heart broke all over again. And then I remembered that I have so much more to write about! What about Normandy, and the Loire Valley? What about climbing the towers of Notre Dame and looking down on my dear favorite city? What about the Primary class that I taught? What about that dreadful flight back to Chicago? So it's back to blogging for me, after I order some prints of the gajillion pictures I took in the City of Lights.
