I readied my disguise this morning and headed for the airport. My train to the airport was late, but when I got there no one from his plane had gotten off yet. Or so I thought. I waited at the gate with my big sunglasses on and a scarf wrapped around my head--you know, the old fashioned 'disguise' from the movies. I waited. I waited. I started to wonder if he'd gotten held back in customs. I finally checked my phone and saw I had missed some calls from him. I called him back: "where are you?".
"I'm at the information booth by where I got off the plane. Where are YOU?" I had missed him when my train came in late because he only packed a carry-on for luggage.
I decided I still wanted to surprise him. "I'm a half-hour away. I'll be there soon!"
But I searched the information booth and he was nowhere to be seen. When I told him I was going to be late, he wanted to surprise me at the train I was coming in on. So I had to call him again and tell him "I'm at the information booth. Where are YOU?" He came back but he didn't recognize me. I approached him and asked him in French "May I help you with something sir?" and he sort of ignored me until I pulled off my sunglasses and he saw it was me. He embraced me so tightly that I thought he was going to break my ribcage...really. That was a fun surprise, but nothing like I'd planned it.
Somehow I had no idea what he looked like. At first he looked like a stranger to me, but after a couple of minutes, he looked exactly like I remembered. Seeing someone in person is so much different than thinking of them or seeing a picture, and I didn't realize how different until just then. In the first few minutes walking together out of the airport, it felt surreal. Soon it became so familiar. But it was bizarre to have the familiarity in a strange place like a foreign country.
It was gorgeous out and since we couldn't decide what to do first, I took him on a walking tour of all the big sites of the city. We started at Notre Dame. We walked over the bridge to the island where it rests in the middle of the Seine. I took him underground the cathedral and showed him the ancient Roman ruins that my grandpa had told me about. We walked through the city and saw rollerblading acrobats and boats with gardens on them. I took him by the Louvre and through the courtyard. We walked through the museum as much as we could without 'entering' an entrance with a fee. Then we walked through Tuileries garden and sat on a bench to watch some kids playing in the park. I started to explain to him French history as we came to the Place de la Concorde, where Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette's heads were cut off. Then I took him down the Champs Elysees and there was a military procession at the Arc de Triomphe that we watched for a little while. By this time it was starting to get dark a little and cold. And then it started to rain a little. And then a lot. We found a cafe near the river and sat under the awning drinking tea. We kept thinking the rain would let up, but it just got stronger. At one point he noted that it wasn't coming down as much as it was before, because now it was coming sideways with all the wind! But he still wanted to see the Eiffel Tower and I still wanted to take him. I couldn't believe how good of a sport he was being with all the jet lag he must have been having. I would have requested a nap by this point, especially during the rain! We fought through the rain over the river and to the tower. We waited in a cold wet line with everyone holding up umbrellas like weapons. I hate umbrellas--I feel that a person should have a license to hold up pointy objects at eye-level.
Finally we made it to the top. We were soaked and the wind at the top was a true gale. I tried to point out all the sites, but I could see he was tired and cold and probably hungry too because we hadn't eaten much all day. He tried to convince me he wasn't miserable, but I was feeling it too. We came redescended the 'romantic' landmark and walked back to the hotel to sleep (we got back so late) because we had an early 7am train the next morning.
