Madame Malade

Sometimes you get sick on vacation. It makes sense that it happens. It is always a huge push to even get packed and on the plane. Working until the last minute and getting the business, cats, and hens squared away. Combine that wiith disrupted sleep patterns, long flights, and the cold of Winter, and the body becomes an target for germs. I've had this happen to me about every other vacation. It's usually just a little cold, that is annoying, but not enoiugh to ruin the vacation. Not this time. The attack on my body was a strong, coordinated viral effort that knocked me out for 4 days straight.

Thankfully the French have a wonderful health care system. I didn't have to call for a doctor (I almost did on the second day of body-shaking coughing), though I could have and it would have cost me all of 20 bucks, even though I am not a taxpayer here. Cody was able to procure all the medicine I needed from our local pharmacy just by describing my symptoms. It may not be a cure for a bad chest cold, but it gives great comfort to those passed out on the couch, feeling too sick to even feel sorry for oneself.

It makes me angry to think of the crazy, corporate health care system we have at home and how much it could have cost me if I was a visitor there instead. I don't understand, how even the pathetic health care bill we just passed, can be so vilified. When people are ill, people should be cared for. No questions asked (especially about your income or insurance card).

I spent most of my bed-ridden infirmity watching movies on French TV. I owe a debt of gratitude to the cinephile nature of the French, since there was ALWAYS something good on the television. Sometimes the films were in English with French Subtitles and sometimes in just French, I think I will learn the most new words this trip from those films. I watched all of the following (and probably more that I am forgetting):

The English Patient
Johnny Guitar
The Bells are Ringing
Victor Victoria
My Life without Me
Broken Flowers
Une Epoppée
Island in the Sky
Hard Eight
A cool French Gangster movie whose name is escaping me.

Then on the fifth day, the fog lifted. I woke up, still very congested and cough-filled, but feeling a million times bettter. Enough to head back out into Paris for a steaming bowl of soupe a l'oignon gratinée at our favorite Parisian vegetarian restaurant, Le Potager de Marais. We walked in and all the tables were full. I asked when we could get seated and our very friendly host apologized profusely as he said an hour. I looked sad, but put our name in and said we would come back. We walked outside, trying to decide what to do for an hour, especially in my barely-functioning state, when he ran back out and told us we could have a table in just 2 minutes, and this ahead of the many people waiting for tables ahead of us. It was a magical moment and one that only can happen here in Paris when you are a regular. We have been coming to this place for years, and had been once already this trip. He saw that I was sick and in need of soup right away and just made it happen. It was a wonderful, delicious, life-vest just when I needed one.

I have been venturing out a bit more each day with Cody. We visited Pere Lachaise and Marcel Proust, walked through Les Halles and across the flooded Seine to see the new Mike Leigh film "Another Year'" and braved the lines today at Pain de Sucre, the Italian deli, the wine store and the cheese store to stock up for our tiny fete tonight.

I am less Madame Malade every day, and more human. Maybe by the time I get back on the plane I will have finally stopped coughing. Until then, lots of vin chaud and Cody's love and company will keep me warm and well.

Happy New Year!