Our soundtrack this morning starts with Fur Elise. Why? Today, in addition to Gail's 60th, we are surprising Ilyse by celebrating her birthday (4 days from now on June 30th) all day.
Accessory of the day for both Gail and Ilyse is a scarf and scarf pin.
We check into our hotel and are delighted to find we have been upgraded to a 2 bedroom suite. The big bonus is that we have a large terrace overlooking Paris. We may not come home!
The 4 of us stroll over to the Champs Elysees so Ilyse can continue her search for the perfect macaron by having lunch at the famous Laduree. It's closed, so she settles for buying some of these sweet treats at a temporary stand set up for the purpose. We have lunch next door. Having had our fill of crepes this week, we settle for croque monsieur, the French version of grilled ham and cheese. I give my sisters necklaces I made with pictures of the Eiffel Tower as a remembrance of this wonderful trip.
We return to our apartment for Mom to rest and then set out on our afternoon excursion- a chocolate walking tour. We are especially delighted by our second stop at Angelina's for their famous hot chocolate. At each store we are directed to choose 1 or 2 chocolates and our guide makes sure we get samples at each to take back to Mom. Gail received a chocolate lip gloss and Ilyse got a notepad with chocolate quotes. After the tour we dd some exploring on our own and then picked up sandwich fixings to take back to the hotel to have dinner with Mom.
After dinner I say to Gail, "we've been exploring creativity of music, art, food, and aging. What are we missing?". She correctly replied, "dance". We gave her dance themed gifts of a tee shirt with dancers and a notebook with dance quotes. Ilyse was given a birthday book. Our evening activity was an Alvin Ailey Dance concert at the Theatre du Chatelet. We had front row center seats and Gail was thrilled to learn that the last piece was choreographed by an Israeli choreographer that she not only admired, but she had taken a class with. This was one of the best moments of our trip, made more so by the fact that Mom was able to join us.
Wednesday, June 27th
The soundtrack of the day is An American in Paris, and Gail's accessory is a pair of earrings. Earrings are the favorite accessory for all three of us and none of us have bought any this trip- practically unheard of! Perhaps we'll have better luck today.
Our personal French guide, Ilyse, takes us to the Marais- the Jewish section of Paris. We spend a delightful day exploring. My sisters shop until I drop (OK, so I shopped a bit too). We all find treasures we can't pass up. Mom has insisted we each buy something as a gift from her (as if she hasn't done enough by making all of this possible) and we each find something special. We end our day at the Place Vendome, and again pick up dinner to share back at our hotel. This time we choose Chinese food- what else, we were in the Jewish section!?!
Tonight was designated as Joke Night (creativity with humor). We all brought funny jokes and stories to share. Then I told Gail that as you get older, it becomes difficult sometimes to control your bladder, especially when laughing so hard. I said that Mom shared a secret with us that we would now share with her. Mom, ILyse and I stood up, pulled up our nightgowns and revealed that we were wearing Depends. Then we turned around- Happy Birthday Gail was written on the Depends across our butts. I am not including a picture of this as we have embarassed our kids enough with the rest of our nonsense and we don't want to be responsible for the ongoing therapy bills! We then presented Gail with her own pair- which were bedazzled with colored stones. Then Ilyse and I serenaded her with "Distended, Bloated, and Bedazzled" sung to the tune of "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered", another of Ilyse's masterpiece poems set to music.
The last soundtrack is The Last Time I Saw Paris; then I presented everyone with their own copy of the trip soundtrack. The gifts are really "flying" now. Mom gives us each a pendant that contains "the air of Paris". We give Mom a framed version of Ilyse's poem The Creative Muse. Gail gives us beautiful necklaces she handpicked for each of us. We give Gail a case for storing jewelry.
Then Gail gives us the best gift of all- a poem for each of us. The presentation is exquisitely done as only Gail knows how. Though each "ode" is specifically written to each of us, the last paragraph is the same on all-
Through all of the ups and downs of our life
In triumphant moments and times of great strife
There's never a doubt about just who to call
We're all for one Abrams, one Abrams for all!
Au revoir, Paris!
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