french obsession

For those of you keeping score at home, we had tv restored in our home last Thursday, just in time for the latest episode of Grey’s Anatomy. While we did miss the ease with which we were able to watch tv with satellite cable, we realized we didn’t miss the noise or the feeling like we had to keep up with all the shows we recorded (and we recorded a lot). We have decided to cancel cable as soon as we get our digital converter boxes, hopefully within a couple of weeks.

So right now, we have cable to enjoy, but no prerecorded programs to watch, which becomes a problem when one wants to listen to something interesting (nothing on late night tv is interesting right now with Conan off for the time being) when washing dishes (we put a little tv/vcr in the kitchen when we got cable, and doing dishes became a million times more bearable). For the past couple of nights, I’ve been making use of the VCR and watching one of my old favorites, French Kiss. French Kiss (1995) follows Kate (Meg Ryan), an American in the process of becoming a Canadian citizen, as she travels around France, trying to win back her fiance, Charlie, after he dumps her long-distance for a beautiful Frenchwoman named Juliette, whom he meets in Paris while attending a medical conference. Kate thought she and Charlie were building the perfect life together in Toronto, and through the course of her journey, grapples with what she overlooked and lacked in her relationship with Charlie. On the airplane to Paris, Luc (Kevin Kline) happens to sit next to her, and uses Kate to smuggle an American grape plant into France so that he can start a vineyard with the money he gets from reselling an exquisite diamond necklace he stole. Having lost the necklace on the plane, Luc accompanies Kate on her trek to find Charlie, and helps Kate win Charlie back.

I don’t even have to spill the ending for those who haven’t seen it, because since French Kiss is a romantic comedy, you can guess the rest. I came across this movie by chance one day in Blockbuster. In August 1995, my brothers went back to private school a week earlier than I did, since I was starting public high school that year. I relished an entire week to hang out with my mom without my brothers for seven hours a day. I believe it was my mom’s suggestion that she and I rent movies that we would be interested to see that wouldn’t appeal to the boys. French Kiss was one of them.

And so began my attraction to France and the French way of life. You wouldn’t know it from reading my blog, but I have a particular affinity for France. This movie kicked off years of daydreaming about visiting France, living in France, and doing things the French way. I took French in high school and read all sorts of books about living in France (Postcards From France was one of the early favorites). I studied up on Coco Chanel and dressing the French way. I read books like On Rue Tatin, about an American who also falls in love with France, moves there, and starts a cooking school in her home. I planned to grow up and live a happily ever life in France.

One of my dreams came true when my parents gave me a trip to France as a present for my college graduation. During my last semester at Mizzou, just to the left of my computer, I had five Paris postcards pinned to my bulletin board. When I complained about all the work I had to do in order to finish the year, my mom would remind me that I had to graduate in order to go to Paris.

In June 2002, my wish came true when my mom and I spent 12 days in France. The first time it hit me that I was actually in Paris was when we emerged from the Metro and stepped out onto a real Paris street, and I saw hundreds of red geraniums in window boxes lining the apartment building walls.

Watching French Kiss the other night brought all the fantasies of my younger days rushing back to me, and made me smile at the memory of myself back then.