Au Revoir Paris

 

After almost a year, Paris has dropped a few veils exposing a less formal, less reserved, and less intimidating persona.  Being able to orient through her streets, adapt to her different calendar, and acculturate to some of the basic Parisian customs has helped us to better assimilate.

In this year, I have witnessed Paris’ beauty in the manicured parks, awesome monuments, unique exhibitions and delicious cuisine; but I have also witnessed her shortcomings of frozen-dark days, soiled streets, and her ever-present-greed as tourists pay to voraciously devour her beauty. 

In no way does Paris look less ceremonial after a year, in no way did she turn mundane, casual or close to being taken for granted, yet she has become a touch more familiar and ever so slightly more approachable.

Yet, while being more at ease with the coming and going, the buying and traveling; her insane paradoxes between aristocratic dominance and social equality, elegance and simplicity, formality and sexual promiscuity, religiosity and hedonism seem to me forever impenetrable.  I suspect that time would not be the key for resolving these polarities, instead an ability to embrace the oppositions as a way of life is what's needed. 

Though ease and acquaintance goes a long way it is my friends who have turned the experience from that of a spectator to that of a participant. Walking in the streets without a map wasn’t when I first felt more a part of the city; rather it was the long brunches and dinners into late nights, the stories, jokes and endless comparison of habits, that began to weave me into the fabric of Paris’ life.

But now it is time to say goodbye.  

We are each preoccupied with parting from different people, different places and different aspects of Parisian life.  We each accumulated different memories as we experienced this city.

Adam is sad to say goodbye to his friends, to a year long struggle with a temperamental teacher who he came to adore, to the metro of course, to all the tall buildings in Paris which allowed him to imagine flying above it all, and to the daily use of the language he mastered so beautifully -- not to mention the morning fresh croissants.

Pete already talks with longing about his Paris office where work starts in late morning, lunch lingers until mid afternoon, often with wine and always with due attention to the food, and where the late afternoon tasks and meetings are accompanied with serious philosophical discussions of questions that would be easily dismissed in America.  He already misses the ease in which we were able to travel to other countries and explore other cultures and our long days exploring Paris together finding surprises at every corner.

I am sorry to say goodbye to all the new relationships that sprang here -- friendships that turned to be deep and satisfying and will now have to stand the test of time and distance.  I am sad to part with the beautiful parks, rich art, my favorite cafés and the free time I had this year to think, to write and to dream. But most of all I will miss the long Wednesdays with Adam together exploring Paris and his mind as well as the stolen weekdays with Pete.

The three of us journeyed through uncertain times here but with a shared vision. We each brought different blocks and tools to build a building.  And now, looking at the building it seems full of potential for adding, moving and removing new blocks.

This also ends my first experience in sharing my writing with you.  

Writing on a blog is a concept foreign to my old fashioned upbringing, taste and even beliefs.  So for whoever read this blog, if anyone at all, I would like to say thank you for being the audience that I imagine you to be.  Thanks for helping me challenge myself with this private exposure of a year of many unknown and surprising events. 

A tres bientot a vous et au revoir Paris,

with love,

Tali