Coffee and history

One of the many statues that adorn the city.

Café. The French know how to make a good cup of joe. If it is not good, then you much not have greeted the server properly upon entering. Tourists think the French are rude, and the French think tourists are rude. To avoid this misunderstanding, all a visitor must do is say “bonjour” upon entering any place of business, whether it’s a restaurant, a shoppe or a pharmacy. Pharmacies here are frequent and from the outside look like a California pot shop with a giant green cross lit up at the entryway that can be seen blocks away.


I sit here eating lunch mesmerized once again by the French present their food — everything is placed beautifully on the plate. Even the water is served formally in a clear glass bottle personally for each table to pout in the mini-wine glass. The food might not taste as great as it is presented, but I think to the regular French customer, this does not matter.

Across the way sits a woman who resembles my grandma Norma strikingly, but I do not know if she was actually French or not. I’ve seen many older French women, who resemble this grandmother and my great grandmother Deary on my mother’s side, who I do know was of French descent. I even smell her around the city, or maybe it’s the overwhelming amount of Catholic churches and holy water that I actually smell. Surely, I have French in my blood, and it’s a curious thought to wonder what distant relatives remain here, or at least connected ancestors of some kind…

I am glad I quit smoking cigarettes before coming here — it would have been too easy to make it a worse habit than it already was. Cigarette packs here read in bold, black letter, “Smoking kills.” in English on one side and French on the other. In 2007, the government outlawed smoking in public places, but I’m not sure what that means because people seem to smoke anywhere. Maybe the law means no smoking inside because that, mostly, doesn’t happen.

Today has been beautiful. Not a drop of rain has touched the ground.

There are several original Statues of Liberties that range in size throughout the Paris.