very warm or lukewarm?
Sure, all roads lead to Rome. But even Paris, which is not only worth a trip, but for some contemporaries also a sin, leads no way past.
Also, I am often in Paris and, like any cultured European, visit – as is often the case – Musée du Louvre and return the smile of Mona Lisa, which looks down on legions of visitors mockingly, mysteriously, or whatever , Also, I pay tribute to the Panthéon, Notre Dame (Quasimodo sends my regards) and the Tubular Center Center Georges Pompidou.
And it was last year, I was alone in Paris, my wife had let me go with a soft sigh, as my legs went by themselves to the Place Pigalle, which also knows every cultured Europeans. Well, who did I see standing in front of a bar? I could not believe my eyes. Irma, la Douce, with her trademark, the white poodle in her arms. When I stepped closer, of course just out of curiosity – honi soit qui times y pense! – she showed me her best smile.
“Well, how about both of us, sweety,” she flattered. “Are we getting really very warm?”
Of course, I should have gone on immediately, but I asked, and still do not know why, a little surprised and also irritated by the price.
Her smile became wider and more beautiful. “200 euros, but only because it’s you!”
I scratch on the back of my head. “Unfortunately, I only have 50 euros with me.”
Her smile ebbed and she thought for a while. “Well, fine,” she said. “Then we just do it lukewarm!”
Oh, yes Paris!
I have to think of someone else. When the sculptor Karl Hartung went to Paris shortly after the First World War as a twenty-year-old for three years, he got to know the two French sculptors Bourdelle and Maillol, who had a great influence on him. Due to a misspelling triggered the following sentence in a letter he wrote to his friends in Germany, great joy:
“Brothels and Maillol have mesmerized me.”
By the way, next year my wife will accompany me back to Paris.