There is something magical about Paris. It can take a hold of you and never let you go. Infiltrate your mind. It’s a city that your senses drink in. Perhaps the sunlight touches your skin and melts into you while you breathe in the air and its life. The energy of the city warms your heart; the food, your soul; the art, your mind. As your eyes drink in the architecture.
Even older generations look more alive here. Through the café window, I watch an older Frenchman, with a slightly hunched back, walk down the street; making his way along the sidewalk; still a part of the bustling city life. Inside, two older gentlemen sit at a table in front of me and drink their espressos; reading their separate newspapers; conversing periodically on an article or a fleeting thought. I suspect that they are well into their seventies. Have they been friends for a long time, I wonder? Decades perhaps. Both have glasses perched on the ends of their noses. Skin professing age. Couching a little, which brings the waitress over to ask, “Voulez-vous un verre de l’eau?”
While the man of the right looks like a French Jack Lemon, with a full head of white hair, his companion looks characteristically French with his large, sharply pointed nose that has a slight hook at the end. He sits with a hat on and a heavy scarf tied around his neck as he bends over the table to read words that have momentarily caught his attention. He looks somewhat like a veteran sailor; an old fisherman, who has long ceased his profession, but has never let go of it. A man who could never forgot his love of the ocean.
I could never stop loving something that has become a part of my blood. Perhaps the salt water that filled the sea air truly became a part of him; embedding itself in his skin. Perhaps that is what brought me here to Paris. When you fall in love with a place, it fascinates you. It sinks into your skin. Infiltrates your mind, body, and soul. Your thoughts become affected by the simple knowledge that it exists. It’s like falling in love with someone. It feels so right, even when it’s difficult. You take the good with the hardships and trying times. No matter how much it rains here or the winters become bitter and cold, I will always love Paris, because it is Parisian Rain and Parisian Winters. They are not simply ordinary.