from Paris: crossings

So there’s a left bank and a right bank. You know that. Basically, unless I’m giving a city tour or showing off how the right bank Tuileries Gardens are inferior to the left bank Luxembourg Gardens, I rarely venture over there.

But on this day, for a number of reasons, we crossed the river and spent several hours trying to get into the rhythm of that side of town.

I hardly used my camera (the little one; I am permanently mad at the malfunction of the big one). The Champs Elysees, which I had heard were people friendly again, seemed as soulless as ever. The stores as expensive, the cafés – pandering to some different species. I even saw men wearing ties and suits – a rare event back home, on the left side.

So there you have it, one photo of the crossing, one photo of a couple taking in (and I mean really taking in) the Louvre Pyramid, one of a young woman – perhaps longing to return to the left? And then it’s back to the safe spaces and places on the cool side of town, where we sustained ourselves with a lunch, a quick visit to a bookstore and soon after, with a dinner and then all was right (in the sense that it was left) with the world.