Hmmm, so THAT’s why they say “To your health…”
To be brief, for one week I had a rotten cold. Now I’m fine again.
Although I missed getting to my favorite restaurant ‘le bouillon Chartier’ for lunch last week, today’s three-course miracle was served as always by those handsome men with bow-ties and white aprons who made me feel like none less than Dolly Levi coming back from Yonkers to the Harmonia Gardens on Fourteenth Street.
At the gym today I rediscovered the joy of my typical boundless energy, and because the rest of France is on strike – or buying designer bananas for $120,000 at trendy art galleries, I was alone in the swimming pool. I performed an astounding numbers of lengths and coordinated movements, partly because I could breath again.
My first day out from under the duvet was actually yesterday, and I came home from an outdoor Alsatian Christmas market with the delicious concoction shown in the picture. Pine liqueur. I told the artisan how in the old days on the road I always brought home scented liqueurs (hazelnut was a favorite) and authentic distilled brandies from a shop very near the Opera House in Strasbourg. The elixir, shown in the picture, may indeed have been my salvation.
Or maybe it was some very close people who showed me their unfailing fidelity, foremost of course being Jacques. With this gift of health I’m reminded of my visit in California last February with my oldest brother, who is ten years older than me. He said, dryly, “Try to put off being 78 as long as you can.”
Some favorite quotes are appropriate here:
“Happiness is good health and a bad memory.” Ingrid Bergman
“I was born with good health and a strong body and spent years abusing them.” Ava Gardner
“Wine is the most healthful and most hygienic of beverages.” Louis Pasteur
To everyone who reads this, here is my wish: Keep yourself in good health or fight like mad to find it again, and at least really try to keep your sense of humor about it!