Day
21 – June 19, 1981:
Today is a lazy day for Gloria and me
because we did not book ourselves on the Paris city tour with Cosmos. However, we did get up by 9:30 am and had
breakfast by 10:00 am, as, it was free!
We walked outside along Avenue de Clichy to do a little shopping. While doing this, we noticed several Arab men
following us and monitoring our progress at various times. Each time we noticed them, we had to dip into
a local shop and wait until they had passed by.
Later, we found out that they like young, blonde women a lot, so, it’s
obvious that we have to be very careful here.
During our walk around, we sat down and
had a cup of tea at a sidewalk cafe.
Later, we dropped into a perfumerie (perfume shop) and talked to the
lady there in French for ½ an hour or so (at least, I did) and we even bought
some perfume. It was fun!
Later on, when we got back to the hotel,
we sat around with Tom’s group and, even later, Lillian joined us and we all
talked with Sam, the guy who had asked me out.
Then, later on, I went upstairs to get showered and dressed for my date
with Sam that evening. He was hoping to
get off work by 9:30 or 10:00, but it ended up being 10:30 or 10:45 instead. In the meantime, I sat with the Rowlands in
the snack bar and they were teasing me quite a bit about Sam (he’s so handsome!). When Sam and I finally left the hotel, we
headed down the street to get a taxi that would take us to a restaurant for
dinner. At that moment, I was beginning
to find out how very attracted we were to each other because we started kissing
in the taxi.
Sam talked about himself for a while and
then I talked about myself. He is 26
years old (3 years younger than me), a graduated lawyer of the Sorbonne
University, and working in Houston, Texas with Texaco. However, he had to return home to France to
see if he must do 1 year’s worth of army duty.
All Frenchmen must do this if they want to remain French citizens, which
Sam did. He will find out about mid-July
about this army duty, and I hope, for his sake, he doesn’t have to do it. But, I guess I’ll find out about it after I
return home.
We went to dinner in a small crowded
restaurant, but I didn’t notice how crowded it really was at the time. I already felt that I was falling in love
with Sam and it was just wonderful!
Ahhh....Paris in the Spring!
After dinner, we took the last subway train (le metro) to Versailles,
France, a suburb of Paris, to his apartment.
When we got off the train, we had to walk because there were no more
buses or taxis anywhere (it was too late).
Neither of us seemed to mind the walk, however; we were both pretty
taken with each other. About ½ - ¾ of an
hour later, we got to his apartment and we knew that we were going to make love
all night long. I never wanted anything
like that so much in my life. It’s so
wonderful, exciting, lovely and romantic and I hope that I’ll see him again.
When we left his apartment the next day,
it was 12:00 noon; we took the bus to the train and then the train into the
city and went shopping for some records in Le Forum des Halles, finally
returning to the hotel around 2:00 pm so that Sam could go to work. We planned to see each other again, so I gave
him the address of our second Paris hotel and the phone number there, as well
as the address of my future Calgary, Alberta home (with my friend Sharon and
her family) and the phone number there. Anyway,
we tentatively planned to see each other on Monday or Tuesday. Time is running out though; the tour will end
soon and we’ll have to move out to our second hotel in Paris then. So, if I see Sam again, it might be a minor
miracle! But, I have to say that meeting
him and going on that date with him will stay in my mind forever!
Day
22 – June 20, 1981:
After we got back to our hotel from
shopping at Le Forum des Halles, Sam had to go to work in the bar
downstairs. I sat down in the snack bar
with Gloria and the Rowlands for a while, and then went upstairs to catch up on
a few things (write some postcards and in my diary). Gloria went out, meanwhile, to shop for some
beer and chips for tonight’s “Bon Voyage” party with our Cosmos group. I’ll probably cry tonight because I’ve met
such nice people on this tour: Tom and
Helen, Nita and Peter (all from Australia), Rachel and Ruth, Madge (from South
Africa), Zarine and Joyce, Billy the Monk, John (our driver), and Lillian (our
tour guide).
Later, when Gloria came back from
shopping, I was still up in our room writing postcards, and then Gloria and I
and the Rowlands met downstairs in the snack bar, had some dinner and a few
beers. While we were busy drinking, I
was being teased mercilessly (but in fun) about Sam by Tom, Helen, Nita and
Peter. Irene and Voni had also taken a
few pot-shots at me earlier today. I
know it was all in fun and I did take it that way, but still, I was somewhat
tense and uptight because of my feelings for Sam and being teased so much about
him. But, after a few more beers, I
started to relax a little.
Finally, at about 10:00 pm, we went
upstairs to join the others in the stairwell (at the far end of the hall) and
there, we did a lot of singing and joking around and I was the butt of yet more
teasing. But, I loved it, and him too! The party broke up at about 11:30 pm due to
the fact that everyone (except Gloria and I) had to get up early (6:30 am) to
leave for Ostend, Belgium the next day.
Voni, Gloria and I stayed up in our room
and drank some more beer and chatted.
Later, Ron Goedendorp joined us.
He’s a fellow we’d met earlier downstairs from San Diego,
California. He stayed for only one beer
with us, but by the time we finally split up to go to sleep, it was almost 3:00
am! My God!
Sam had had to leave after work for Le
Mans where his car had broken down and was being repaired and the last train
left at 11:30 pm, so, at about 11:00 pm, we went looking for each other and met
in the first floor hallway to kiss each other good-bye. At this moment, I am really crazy about him,
and he seems to feel the same way about me.
We may never see each other again, yet I know I’ll never forget him.
copyright 2014, Anne Shier. All rights reserved.
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