Press Releases

I’d Like to Live in Paris

By Judy Wells
Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 10:44:00 AM

I’d like to walk along the Seine 

View Notre Dame de Paris 

I’d like to live in the 5ème 

Walk down the rue des Ecoles 

Sit at la Place de la Contrescarpe 

and sip chocolate 

Shoo away the pigeons 

that Hemingway stalked 

for his stews as a poor man in Paris 

 

I’d like to live in the 6ème 

Walk in the Jardin du Luxembourg 

Visit Gertrude Stein’s place 

Sit among her visitors 

Picasso’s great portrait of her on the wall 

Alice with her brownies 

about to serve us all 

 

I’d like to live in the 16ème 

or Passy as it was called 

in the 19th century 

Visit with Balzac in his house 

where he hid from his creditors 

Have him serve me a nightcap 

of his famous coffee— 

a thick brew made of ground beans 

Then hear his stories toute la nuit 

of Esther and Lucien de Rubempré 

before I waltzed away 

 

To stroll around Montmartre 

with Salvador Dali 

at dawn. Why not? 

Or maybe I would join 

Apollinaire and Marie Laurencin 

wandering over bridges on the Seine  

The sun rising slowly 

on a cold, foggy day 

My mind jazzed with Balzac’s coffee 

till I see Notre Dame de Paris 

 

And bow my head