Missing Paris today... and my in-laws.
We spent this past weekend at my mother-in-love's
cleaning out the last of her furniture
as the house has now sold.
A sad task and the final round
of dividing up her belongings,
deciding who keeps what
and making the last painful trips to the donation center.
Remembering their visit to Paris
at the end of our year of living there,
I couldn't help but think of the bustling little boulangerie/patisserie
that sat just across the street from us on the corner.
When my In-Love's had tired of trekking through the streets of Paris
or long drives and cathedral and chateau visits in the Loire,
they LOVED sitting on the blue couch in my dining room
staring out the French window
watching the people coming and going
through the doors of the boulangerie.
Something tickled them about the number of people
emerging with baguettes or pretty-ribboned pink boxes
filled with pastries and chocolates.
Often there was a line out the door and a dog or two
also waiting with their owners on the end of a leash.
My father-in-love had a healthy sweet tooth
and nearly daily made his own trek across the street
to come home with a pink box and his favorite gateau.
He started with the smallest one
and worked his way up to the largest.
Some days he suggested we skip lunch
and just have gateau.
The sweet little boulangerie on that corner is gone now...
as are my in-laws.
On that corner now sits a(nother) bank.
And in my home here in the Pacific Northwest
sit a few items that remind me of my mother-in-love
who just left us this year.
But in my heart is the sweetness of the memory
of the two of them together, enjoying the view out the window,
chuckling as they pointed things out to each other while they held hands.
(Photo copyright: Kirsten Steen)