Paris, Je T'aime!

La Bastille

It’s amazing how much one can enjoy the simple act of sitting in a coffee shop and watching people as they go about their lives. That’s exactly what I did today, and I loved it.
I woke up and it was a gorgeous morning! I started the day off with my morning run along the Seine River. I should have learned from yesterday and dressed a little warmer this morning, but I put on my shorts and t-shirt and hurried out the door. I ran East to les Jardins de Fleures, did a couple of loops around the gardens and then came home. People were staring and commenting at the way I was dressed – I guess they’ve never spent a winter in Montreal before. After taking a nice hot shower, I got ready and made my way to Café Francaise – a café/bistro next to la Bastille. I took a seat facing the window, ordered a glass of wine and took out my book. I should probably mention that it was about 4PM when I finally sat down because I had spend a good 2-3 hours getting lost in les Marais trying to find this other café….bygones.
I alternated having my head down reading my book to having my head up watching strangers in their rawest moments. The three distinct images that I captured were: 1) Two ladies came in and sat in front of me wearing their extravagant fur coats, hair done perfectly, sunglasses on and cigarettes in hand. They each ordered un petit café (an espresso) and sat there silently smoking and sipping away without saying a word to each other. I don’t think anything else could have been so stereotypically “French”; 2) Another woman came in on her own and sat at the corner table. I didn’t notice her too much as I was heavily into my book, but when I looked up I noticed her staring at me with a faint smile that was both convivial and inquiring. I could tell she was interested in me; I mean here I was, an obvious foreigner alone in a café drinking wine and reading a book with not a care in the world. I smiled back at her and without even conversing there was a dual sense of understanding and we both continued about our ways; 3) As I was sipping on my glass of wine, a brave little bird landed on my table and looked at me with its head tilted to the side. It chirped once, chirped twice and hoped closer and closer to my hand. I thought it was quite remarkable how I hadn’t scared it off with my movements. Closer and closer it came to my hand, and as I reached out the little bugger stole my peanuts and flew off! Oh well, it was still a beautiful moment.

After a few hours there, I went back to the apartment and caught up with a few friends from home. I will be using tonight to plan for tomorrow's activities; I'm thinking of tackling another museum...

To end, here’s a quote from the Alchemist that I love:
“Intuition is really a sudden immersion of the soul into the universal current of life, where the histories of all people are connected, and we are able to know everything, because it’s all written there. Making a decision is only the beginning of things. When you make a decision, you’re really diving into a strong current that will carry you to places you had never dreamed of when you first made the decision.”

Bonnes Rêves,
Alexis