I was a young man in my twenties and unattached. It was a short three days in Paris for me but I did get to see most of the famous attractions including the Louvre and the Mona Lisa. But, something happened on the top of the Eiffel Tower. I fell instantly in love. Well.... kind of. That's a bit of an exaggeration.

And that isn't really the point of the story. You might be a bit surprised by this story in terms of life and time.

The eiffel tower has a big industrial elevator that tourists take to travel up. It is an outdoor elevator, about thirty feet square and a steel cage of sorts.

Well that old kind of industrial elevator needs an operator to work the handle.

And there she was, the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. A french woman in her early twenties. And she was the elevator operator.

I stood there in rapt awe looking at her as the elevator went up. And I can still hear her voice as we reached the first floor "premiere e'tage , premiere e'tage!".

The French have different sensibilities than we Americans. The eiffel tower represents Paris, and it represents France. It is a world renowned symbol. And if I were to guess the French sought to find the most beautiful woman in all of France, also as a symbol of Paris/France.

Well, the elevator was a short ride. I spent some time at the top. Then I stood in rapt awe once again as she took us in the elevator back down to Earth.

And that was it.... or so I thought.

Twenty Years Later

My life had changed a lot and France is a place I hadn't thought about for a very long time. I was just living my life.

And on Superbowl sunday I was watching the superbowl and there are of course commercials. Well... one of the commercials was a mastercard commercial.

The commercial started out with a pair of american tourists arriving in Europe to discover the airline had lost their luggage. They lamented that their big vacation was ruined! But..... no.... everything will be alright because they have a mastercard!! Yay!

They can just buy all the things they need with their mastercard!

The commercial then went into a series of short clips showing them enjoying all the wonderful things of Europe. They were on a gondola in Venice, standing outside the Colosseum in Rome, Standing at the Acropolis in Greece, and.... taking an elevator ride up to the top of the Eiffel tower.

And there she was.... the most beautiful woman I had ever seen in my life, still operating the elevator on the Eiffel tower. Now in her forties, just like me. And still just as beautiful as she was when we were in her twenties.

I just sat fondly remembering my trip to Paris and thinking how life is a funny thing; this dance between men and women is a beautiful thing, and time is a slippery thing.