Sandy Supposes....

Paris, The City of Lumieres

PROMPT:Paris encore une fois

          Bonjour mes amis! Oh, this deluxe hotel is tres grand. Snuggling and comfort do not begin to cover the beds here. They are like billowy clouds, or plush pillows. I only had time for one single yawn before I jumped out of bed. Aujourd'hui is Mercredi, and that means another bicyclette tour. Encore une fois/ once again, cafe au lait comes to my rescue. Caffeine is the quicker-picker-upper. This establishment is too elegante/elegant for hurrying and scurrying, but I am forced to hustle to rendezvous with everyone at the train station. Apparently, our Guide, is also a hustler. We nicknamed him Victor Vite Feet because he constantly herded us with, "Vite, vite! Marchez, allons-y!"Basically, he wanted us to quicken our pace. No dilly-dallying, or dawdling. I was step, step, smile, :bonjour"...step, step, smile, "bonjour."

          Ah, a bicyclette and moi au Versailles. Il fait du soleil. Le ciel est bleu. Perfect weather for pedalling, sunny with a blue sky. La dernier fois/ the last time I cycled I met a lovely local by accident. France is too dignified a country for this. This time, I made sure my bicycle came equipped with a timbre, a bell. Le beep, le beep. Le ting, le ting. I also shouted, "Excusez-moi! Attention!"

          The bustling Versailles market was alive with bartering, bickering, and bellowing. It was colourful. It was alive. I opted to purchase a fresh/frais baguette, some fromage/cheese, a slab of jambon/ham, and a bouteille/bottle of vin blanc, or white wine. At one etal/stall, I spied a beautiful beret that I just had to have. It was pinky in couleur, but in my mind it was raspberry. Yep, I wore a raspberry beret; my homage to Prince.

          I enjoyed biking through the lush vert jardin/garden. Green is my favourite colour. The rainbow of fleurs/flowers were merveilleux.

          Our backpacker bike gang gratefully collapsed near the Grand canal. Wheels to meals, a self-catered picnic, dining al fresco. SB Musing {suser"kittee} Fivesixer Sally 💙 Carly-wrimo 2024 wieseblaize Apondia We combined our lunch purchases. Of course, there were canards/ ducks to share our bread with, real French fowl, "le quack, quack." I swear some of these sneaky beggars tried to swill some of our wine.

          After our perfect picnic, we toured the House of Mirrors, holy glitter! One word described this hall, opulent. Crystal chandeliers and 350 mirrors reflected and radiated sunlight. Gild and gold everywhere! Wow! The ceiling was incredible, too with its magnificent mural.

         The Eiffel Tower at night is magical. It was readily apparent how Paris earned its nickname, The City of Lights. Paris glimmered, glowed, shimmered, and sparkled. How appropriate that the French word for light is 'lumiere' since Paris pulsed with luminosity, 'luminessence'. Lumiere scintillement equals scintillating lights.

         C'est bon, more escape room games! Since Paris is a city of beauty and secrets, the gang chose to honour the bete noire, or black beast genre. Who doesn't appreciate a soir/night of mytery/mystere?We were locked in a room titled The Mystery Manor for one hour with puzzles, secret doors, and locks. NaNoKit was so caught up in the spooky spirit of the game, she shrieked when she felt something crawl across her shoulder. It was a jaunty scarf, a wayward scarf worn because this is fashionable Paris. At one point, SB Musing was so deep in thought and therefore struck temporarily speechless, we believed she had escaped without us. What a relief that cherchez la femme wasn't permanent. We all learned some handy French: "ou-est?" is where is? "Pourquoi" is "why." "Oh, mon Dieu!" is the equivalent of OMG. "Combien?" is "how many?"" "Soixante" is Sixty which seems like a big number until that many minutes pass all too quickly. Aha!' is the same in any language. We laughed so much that some maquillage, or make-up melted.

         Oh, the moonlight meander back to the hotel was memorable. Most of us were serenading the stars. the etoiles. We were not inebriated, just a wee bit wobbly. Bonne nuit, Paree!