I feel like I'm starting to find my place in this city. I realised this today when I jumped off the Métro at La Défense to go to pick up the kids I babysit from school.
Brandishing my Navigo pass, I found my place in the stream of commuters and allowed myself to be carried along by the current until I reached Sortie A; at which point I seamlessly broke away from the crowd and hurried up the steps in the direction of Courbevoie. Wearing my trench coat and clutching my current Métro reading book (Elle s'appelait Sarah by Tatiana de Rosnay- an amazing read but maybe a little too emotional for public transport!), I felt like I fitted right in with the hoardes of other commuters. And I loved it.
I feel at home too when I'm walking down the Boulevard du Montparnasse in the crisp autumn mornings on my way to Uni. The leaves haven't yet fallen, but there is a general feeling of approaching winter as everyone is wrapped up in their cashmere scarves against the biting wind. There's an odd charm to everything in the 14th in the mornings; sometimes I find myself smiling at nothing in particular as I pass by the green kiosques selling the daily papers and the trench-coat-clad mothers ushering their children to l'école maternelle. I shake my head and roll my eyes along with all the other Parisians at drivers who try to jump the lights, and sometimes stop to pick up a warm pain aux raisins from the street vendor at the Place du 18 juin 1940.
It's very strange to think that I've only been here for three weeks. Sometimes when I come back from work late at night on Line 6, which takes me past the Eiffel Tower all lit up, I can't help but look up from my book and pinch myself. The other day, my friend and I were crossing the Esplanade des Invalides on the way to the library. We had to pause on a traffic island, and suddenly the wind picked up and blew our hair around our faces. Laughing, we looked around and there was the Eiffel Tower peeping over the rooftops, the Dome des Invalides to our left and the Pont Alexandre 3ème to our right. My friend shouted above the roar of the traffic, 'Oh my God, is this where we actually live?!' It's hard to describe what I felt, and I'm not going to try. But whenever living here is difficult (and I'm under no illusions that sooner or later that may happen), I will remember that moment.
I could ramble on for a long while about this, but alas it is late and my roommate is already asleep.
More soon x
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