This was in December of 2008. I got an email from Jerry that he was taking a vacation to Champagne, passing through Paris on the way. He was so excited. When Jerry wrote, he didn’t realize that I was in Paris at the time, going to cooking school. It was a great serendipity to be able to meet up with him in a city we were both so familiar with and fond of.

He gets to Paris a few days later on his way to Reims, and we met up with some old friends of his that he was staying with. It was the day before my final exam and I told him I had to stay in and study that night, only one drink Jerry! But once I met up with him, I was swept along in his wake. We went to his friends’ apartment, and they made me stay for dinner with them, a lovely pot-au-feu, with a few bottles of excellent wine, and long leisurely conversation well past midnight. Somehow I managed to get the last Metro of the day home, and somehow I managed to pass my final the next day.

A week or so later he was back in Paris, and the whole town was glowing with Christmas decor. We went to a nice restaurant for dinner (and of course wine) and then wandered the streets. Somewhere I have a great photo of the two of us, standing in the middle of the Champs Elysees with the Arc du Triomph in the background.

Both of us were leaving early the next morning back to San Jose, so it wasn’t maybe the best idea to stay out really late drinking and wandering the streets of Paris. But we did, and both of us were hung over and miserable the next morning trying to get to the airport on time. We made it home, but I don’t know if we ever spoke of that night again.