Page "romance" Paragraph 760

Once before I had been to Paris, long before I married Valery.

That first time was good and it stuck with me.

I was twenty-one back then, in the army, and fog put our plane down at Orly instead of Rhine-Main.

It was a Saturday evening in April with a mist-like rain, and I was a little high on the good taste of life.

I had a pocketful of money, which was unusual when I was in the army, and the plane would be grounded all night.

In less than an hour I had gotten a hotel, showered, shaved and was out on the Champs Elysees in a fresh uniform.

I felt like a Hun in Rome.