The Beginning of the End

Summer, 2002. The trip itself had been a stretch, but he decided on an additional splurge. Docked along the Seine adjacent to the Eiffel Tower were the long, sleek craft of the Bateaux Parisiens, and the price of a twilight dinner cruise was not as outrageous as he had expected. “The evening of a lifetime,” he thought, as he proposed the idea to his companion.

Back at the hotel in Montparnasse, she dressed carefully, selecting a white dress that accented her tan and displayed her legs. She was the most beautiful woman of his life, and she would likely be the loveliest woman on the cruise.

He had paid extra for a window table on the port side of the boat. Ushered to their table, they found a chilled bottle of white Bordeaux already opened for pouring, and a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon uncorked to breathe. A bottle of Sauternes remained corked. “What lovely wines,” she commented.

Appetizers were served as the bateau approached the Ile de la Cite. They sipped the Bordeaux and sampled escargot and salmon as the boat passed the island and its principal feature, the Cathedral of Notre Dame. Through the deepening dusk, the cathedral’s huge flying buttresses were visible as the boat cleared the island. She pointed with delight at the Ile St. Louis, where they had walked among the cafes and shops earlier in the day. She nodded to him, and he refilled her glass as the Latin Quarter was passed to starboard.

As darkness descended and the lights of the city began to emerge, the band began to play soft jazz, and the couple was first to the dance floor. Her expertise and elegance hid his inexperience, and they received a smattering of applause from the other diners before being joined on the floor. As the boat approached the farthest point of its voyage, the entrees were served, and the couple sat down to entrecote and medallions of duck. The Cabernet was the perfect accompaniment for the tenderloin, but a bottle of Pinot Noir was brought to enhance the fowl.

The City of Light was by now aglow. The boat had made its turn and passed the islands along the right bank as the waiter served crème brulee. The waiter’s job included flirting and posing for photographs with many of the women in his area, as their husbands looked on in flaccid bemusement.

The Eiffel Tower loomed out of the darkness, a spectacle of light, but the boat continued past until it reached the smaller version of Lady Liberte on a small island in the Seine. There, the captain used the docking engines to pinwheel his craft around, giving both sides a good look at the statue.

The boat returned to dock beneath the glowing tower. Many patrons left, but the woman wanted to stay. The Bordeaux was gone, and the Pinot Noir nearly so, but she said, “ I’m having so much fun, and the wine is so lovely,” and she joined a raucous group of English tourists who were opening a new bottle.

The waiter took this opportunity to flirt with the woman, something he would not have dared to do an hour earlier. Her companion was not pleased, but he managed to suppress his first reaction, which would have been to pin the waiter against the window with a hand to his throat. Instead, he pulled the waiter aside, handed him some crumpled euros, and told him he was dismissed. The woman was annoyed.

An hour later, well past one in the morning, almost all of the evening’s guests had left and the number of taxis in the queue on the quay had dwindled to two. He had been warned about late night dangers in the Metro, and insisted that they leave. She became angry, petulant, accusing him of ruining the evening. The taxi driver demanded an exorbitant fee, but the furtive shapes lurking in the shadows convinced him to pay it.

On the ride back to Montparnasse, she sagged sleepily against his shoulder. He guided her to the elevator and into the room, where she collapsed fully clothed on the bed. The sour smell of wine reeked from her skin. She began to snore.

He lay back with his hands behind his head, and stared out the window toward Luxembourg Gardens, a dark space that only that morning had been vibrant with color.