Original Gal Pal Rules

Annual girl’s trip to Paris in less than two weeks.  Women ask me all the time how it is that my husband “allows” me to go each year for a girl’s getaway to Paris.  “Isn’t it expensive?” they ask.  My reply, “It’s cheaper than divorce!”

Is it the clothes, the food, the wine, the people watching, or museums that keep me excited all year-long while planning this annual retreat?  I can’t say myself.  I can only say that I feel alive while I am there.  My senses are alive with so much sensory stimulation.

My rules for Paris gal pals:

1. Limit group to four including me.  It’s easier to make dinner reservations for tables for four.  Taking tours is more difficult when you have more than four to keep track of in crowds.  The odds of more than four women liking the same clothes, food, wine, or museums is very low.
2. One of the four friends has to include my crazy friend Lisa who meets us from London.  This is not negotiable so if you don’t want to meet Lisa you are out.
3. Lisa can only come for 24-48 hours!  She and I are a wild combination and we don’t get any sleep.  We want to shop and drink wine all night so after 48 hours she has to get back on that train and head back to London with all her new shoes that she will hide from her husband Michael who, by the way, is a saint.
4. You cannot be high maintenance!  You must be okay with small rooms with hand-held showers (we try to stay in rooms with regular, you know them as American showers) and you must not sleep late in the morning no matter how late we are out the night before.
5. You must like food and wine.  You cannot nibble or pick at food.  You cannot order only salad or the wine volume will make you vomit.
6. No vomiting in the room we will share – refer to number 5.  Only if you are pregnant or about to get married are you allowed to vomit in the room!!!
7. If your dad wants to pay for you and your girlfriends to have dinner out say, “Yes!” and then let me make reservations at La Tour D’Argent – the most expensive and interesting restaurant in all of Paris.  This worked really well when Mr. Graham offered it to Elizabeth.  What a great man!  We didn’t take advantage of him and ordered reasonably so perhaps some day he will offer again.  Hint, hint!
8. Don’t use words like garcon when referring to waiters.  If you don’t speak French let me do the ordering at the cafes.  Don’t be a rude American – we have enough already handling that for us and don’t want to be associated with them!
9. Don’t wear sneakers in my presence – leave them at home waiting for you when you get back and need to exercise off the eclairs consumed.  They are ugly and offensive to the well dressed skinny French women that we will be staring at from our perch at Cafe des Flores!
10. Sleep on the plane on the way over because when we hit the ground in Paris we will be headed straight out to shop and eat!  No napping, no whining or yawning will be tolerated.  Jet lagged prone women this is NOT a trip for you!