April in Paris

When I was 20, I did actually spend April in Paris. I was living abroad at the behest of my father, and after staying several months in a pension close to the Notre Dame, I found some American girls who wanted to share rooms in a long-term small hotel across from a cemetery on the Boulevard Raspail. It turns out that was the same cemetery where Edith Piaf was buried.

Apple blossoms burst into bloom in April or May.

France is classified as being in the temperate zone in Europe, and the southern part on the Mediterranean Sea is definitely coastal and warmer. I recall the winter in Paris as being similar to New York. Some snow, lots of rain and chilly. But when spring started, the trees began to bud out and then flower and usually by April, it was warming up.

This was the spring following the assassination of President Kennedy, and I had been in Europe all winter. I would be heading back to the U.S. in a few weeks, leaving behind some friends and lots of memories.

That was the year that the French movie "Parapluies de Cherbourg" (Umbrellas of Cherbourg) came out. I fell in love with the movie which was really more of an operetta, with the characters singing most of their lines.

My favorite song from the movie, "I will wait for you," could be classified as a periodic theme in my earlier life as well. I still like the music, but no longer connect to the idea of waiting for anyone. Perhaps now that I'm in the group of consumers who buy ripe bananas has something to do with it.

Now it's April in Sequim, I'm living in a 55+ commune, and my 20's are a distant memory, like a book I've already read and probably won't read again.

Spring is a time of re-birth and a reminder of cycles… which reminds me, my bicycle is waiting… later, readers!

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