All Things France

Is it just me or does everyone keep running into things French? Okay, let me be upfront that I am obsessed with France. I've visited probably 8-10 times and it has been the site of my best vacations ever. Lately, everywhere I turn I'm faced with French people, French discussions, French joie de vivre.
Every morning, when I'm home, my husband turns on the Tour de France. Mostly, it's a view of bicylists butts, but sometimes I get to see the countryside. Last night on the way home from the swim meet, we turned on The Prairie Home Companion and it was the French show. Every skit they used had a connection to France. Today as I'm updating my syllabus for summer session, I turned on Rick Steve's and his show was about Paris. The entire time people talked about things they'd seen and done in Paris. Mais, oui. It makes me feel a longing like homesickness because I want to go back so badly.
It makes me think of being there with the kids the last time when we were on the Bateaux Mouches and the lights of the Eiffel Tower sparkled behind them. And I remember our favorite meal there, on a side street near the Arc de Triomphe. We sat outside and we had a Parisian waiter who joked with the kids and didn't try to correct our crass American ways.
On another trip to Paris with my friend Michelle, I was oblivious to French men flirting with me. I asked a waiter at a tea shop how long they were open and he said, "For you, we are always open." I turned back to Michelle and said, "Oh, good, they're open 24 hours." She called me an idiot but my brain was too filled with babies back then to notice flirtation.
Earl and I have fleeting vacations through Paris, heading to Provence for long bicycle rides, but we've managed on recent trips to visit The Cluny to see the unicorn tapestry. Next time, I want to take him to l'Orangerie to see Monet's waterlily paintings in the round.
Earl says we are running into lots of French things because of the Bastille Day celebration on July 14th. Is it just a conincidence that Marie, a 17-year-old French student will arrive here on July 18th to spend six weeks? Maybe I'm attracting French things to myself. Keep it coming baby. Soon the attraction will be so great I'll be sucked across the ocean and land in the middle of the Champs Elysee