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Show by Teri Gomes Merd et Bonne Nuit ... Next week there will be time to develop the photos and remember each frozen frame of the nearly two-week two-week exchange. Right now, the trip to Courchevel, France is only a blur of watercolor memories (impressionistic, (im-pressionistic, of course) of the best trip of my life. There's time enough to tell you the adventures of Parkites on the road to Courchevel (like when Bill Ligety woke up at three a.m. the first night suffering from the time transition. He decided to put on his running shoes and hit the snowy streets. He made it only as far as the hotel kitchen and a little pre-dawn raid.) There's time enough to recount snowy nights and bluebird days with skiing literally outside your hotel door. (Powder hounds on the trip will tell stories of great chutes and rocky ledges where I only took pictures and they took no prisoners. ) There's time enough to detail for you the "cheat death" ride in a five-passenger five-passenger little plane from the airport situated right on the mountain say at the equivalent of the Snow Hut. We spent two hours touring the Alps from the air... There will be time later to describe for you dinners with international celebrities like actor Paul Belmondo, jockey Yves Saint Martin and race car driver Alain Prost ... There will be time still to review the very un-Utah nightclub show of Boy George, umm, boys... There will be time to describe the Moet Chandon jeep affectionately known as the "Moe Mobile" and its charming driver and hotel owner, Henri ... Time will come to share why the congeniality awards of the week go to Dr. Tony Mitchell and Jessie (Telemark) Whitmore ... I will take time to tell you all about my ski guide who turned out to have worked for a summer for the crazy American hot air balloonist, Buddy Bombard in Normandy ... There will be time to try and recreate the mood of a special concert given for us by the conductor of the Moscow Virtuosi by special arrangement with Moscow. If there is a single place where East and West can meet it is the arts ... There will be time soon enough to describe the private club room of Maxim's in Paris where the Businessmen & cmo was our host for a cocktail party. The mahogany walls and Tiffany flower lamps reminded me of San Francisco. I was gently told Maxim's pre-dates most bars in The City... There will be lots of time to tell you of the excitement when our limited French and their better English produced pro-duced conversations that clicked. But so very much understanding was able to take place with simple attitudes ... There will be time to tell you of Bill Coleman's leaping on the lamppost in Paris and literally "singing in the rain." Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor O'Con-nor couldn't have done it any better. But if any one single thing struck a vein with me it was how each person on the trip seemed to learn and grow a bit. We are all proud to be Parkites and patriotic Americans. Many of us learned lear-ned that for our planet to survive we need also to concentrate on being citizens of the world. So, next week the photos, the little stories, the character sketches. For now. I know Dorothy was nght-there's no place like home, and . I plan to crawl into bed here. But now I know my dreams will be of the second best place-Courchevel. Bonne nuit ... |