A Storybook Paris by Ann Banks
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When I was a child, my most vivid and enduring daydream was this: I'd open a favorite storybook to the liveliest page and jump in. Once inside, I'd still be me, but I'd get to roam the setting at will - conversing with the characters, petting their dogs, sleeping in their rooms. By the time this dream came true, the book was one belonging to my nine-old daughter, Kate. The place was Paris.
Our storybook adventure began quite by accident. I had set aside three days on the tail end of an overseas business trip so Kate and I could explore Paris together. Upon arriving in the city we discovered that the only room available in our highly recommended residence hotel was grim, gloomy, and so small we could barely turn around. We wanted out - but where could we go? I hadn't been to Paris in years, didn't know any hotels, and don't speak French. But I recalled a reference to "the loveliest hotel in the whole city of Paris" in the book I'd brought along for Kate to read, Linnea in Monet's Garden, by Christina Bjork.
Published in 1987 and now something of a classic, Linnea tells the story of a delightful Swedish girl who falls in love with the flower paintings of the French Impressionist Claude Monet. Wanting to learn more, she travels to Paris with her neighbor, a retired gardener named Mr. Bloom. They stay at a hotel called the Esmeralda, "right on the River Seine, which flows through all of Paris," says Linnea. "From my window, I could see all of Notre-Dame Cathedral. That is the most famous church." As Linnea explains, the Esmeralda is named after the beautiful gypsy in Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Kate and I were entranced by Linnea's story. Suddenly it came to me: Linnea could be our guide to the city. We had merely to enter her book. In no time we had checked out of our dismal hotel, made our way across town in a taxi, and were standing in the Esmeralda.
The tiny lobby looked just like it does in the book. On the rough stone wall by the stair hung the painting of the gypsy Esmeralda dancing with her pet goat, Djali. On the red velvet couch lounged the hotel's dog, Canelle, over whom Linnea makes such a fuss. ("In Paris, lots of dogs go out by themselves, particularly on our little street. Canelle knows them all," Linnea reports.)
After making friends with Canelle, Kate and I settled into a room just like the one in the book, "ancient beams in the ceiling" and all. The view from our window was exactly as Linnea describes: Notre Dame Cathedral. Of course, but also, directly below, a park containing the second oldest tree in Paris. (This, according to Linnea, "came all the way from America in a basket, and was planted there in 1681.")
Like Linnea, Kate and I took the Metro to see the Monets. As we traveled around Paris from the Musee d'Orsay to the Orangerie to the Marmottan, I thanked my luck that the engaging Linnea had preceded us. Without her lively running commentary on the art, it's doubtful I'd have gotten away with dragging my daughter through so many museums. Kate, like Linnea, favored the water lily paintings, even taking out her colored pencils and copying one at the Orangerie.
"You can put any color you want in the water and it looks okay," she observed.
Having done the museums, we decided to spend a day at Giverny (as Linnea and Mr. Bloom had done), the village where Monet lived and worked. We wanted to see for ourselves his famous pink house with the green shutters and the lily pond that so inspired his painting. Standing on the lovely Japanese bridge, we looked hard at the water below and tried to see all the colors that Monet had seen.
Back in Paris again, we sought guidance from the "More Things to Do in Paris" page at the close of the book. Despite her passion for Monet, Linnea recognizes that the soul isn't nourished exclusively by art. There's also chocolate especially in Paris, a city of unabashed chocolate• lovers. Linnea satisfies her craving with a chocolate africaine with whipped cream at Angelina's on the Rue de Rivoli. Our search led Kate and me to the tres elegant La Maison du Chocolat, where the hushed ambience befits a place that charges $8 for a cup of cocoa.
We also mastered the art of toy sailboat sailing at the Luxembourg Gardens (Linnea suggests the Tuileries). We climbed the Notre Dame bell tower and chose our favorites from among the gargoyles. At least once a day we dropped in at Shakespeare & Co., the eccentric English -language bookshop just around the corner from the Esmeralda.
I'm sure Kate and I would have had a nice time in Paris without Linnea's guidance. But following her happy adventures made it magical. On our last day, Kate wrote in her journal. "I love this city so much!" Once in a while, when the planets are lined up just right, a parent and a child can enter the same daydream, side by side.
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