Paris (France)
26 November 2016
The last time we were in Paris
together we were virtually strangers, meeting for only the second time on our
first date. That was only two years ago but my, hadn’t we all rung in the
changes since then. Up until that point my life had felt static, like I had
slowly but surely found a way to sink deeper into the quicksand of complacency
and the commonplace. I had all the right
to get me out of the quagmire but I just hadn’t been able to utilise
them in the right fashion. It wasn’t for the sake of my own effort either. What
it took however was a seismic shift, and when that necessary circuit break of
rudimental certainty came, it flipped everything on its head. It also gave me
the opportunity to take my life back.
Two years ago in this city I
stood in the centre of my life’s own Venn diagram. There’s quote by Graham
Greene that says, ‘A story has no
beginning or end; arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which
to look back or from which to look ahead’ – symbolically or actually, Paris
represents the end and start points of where I got to and where I’ve gotten to
now.
Place de la Concorde - Paris - France
Roue de Paris - Place de la Concorde - Paris - France
Roue de Paris - Place de la Concorde - Paris - France
Paris - France
Place de la Concorde - Paris - France
Only two days earlier I had asked
Inga to marry me. Now he we were, in the city where we’d had our first date only
two years ago, standing now on the precipice of a life together. It was a poignant moment in many ways, filled
with impactful, stirring memories. It sought to act as a great way to allow us
reminisce but also, plan the way forward.
In these last gasps of Autumn
Paris produced another wonderful day. Cold, for sure, but the sun was out, the
leaves had reached a deep yellow, amber colour and symbolically underpinned
this moment of change in my life.
Roue de Paris - Place de la Concorde - Paris - France
Roue de Paris - Place de la Concorde - Paris - France
Roue de Paris - Place de la Concorde - Paris - France
Jardin de Tuileries - Paris - France
Avenida de Champs Elysees - Paris - France
Jardin de Tuileries - Paris - France
Transit cities for
entering/exiting Belgrade to somewhere else is almost an obligation for travel
out of Serbia (other than Australia, strangely enough), so Paris was a
necessary stop, but one that we were happy to have. Even though our time in the
city was short we did spend a bit of time walking around the Jardin de Tuileries, before entering the
Place de la Concorde and taking a turn on the Roue de Paris, a 60mtr tall Ferris wheel that offers some fairly
impressive views over Paris.
Late Autumn in Paris
River Seine - Paris - France
River Seine - Paris - France
River Seine - Paris - France
Cathederale de Notre Dame - Paris - France
Pont Neuf - Paris - France
Pont Neuf - Paris - France
Pont Neuf - Paris - France
Pont Neuf - Paris - France
Cathederale de Notre Dame - Paris - France
Cathederale de Notre Dame - Paris - France
Cathederale de Notre Dame - Paris - France
Walking in Paris is always a
pleasure and we took on a small-ish circuit by heading down to the Seine, and
casually strolling to Pont Neuf where we ‘locked ourselves’ into a chained
fence, like so many before us.
Strangely, the origin of the ‘love lock’ or pad lock dates back to an
old melancholic Serbian tale of World
War 1, with an attribution for the bridge of Most Ljubavi, in the spa town of Vrnjacka Banja. Apparently, as the
tale goes, a local school mistress named Nada, who was from the town, fell in
love with a Serbian Officer named Relja. After they committed to each other
Relja went off to war in Greece where he fell for a woman in Corfu (and of course who wouldn’t want to stay in
Corfu, I mean the place is gorgeous). Nada was of course devastated, never
recovering and died eventually from a heart-attack, literally a broken heart. A
young woman from Vrnjacka Banja who knew of the situation wanted to do
something to protect their own loved
ones and thus came up with the idea of affixing padlocks on the bridge where
Nada & Relja used to meet.
Pyramide de Louvre - Paris - France
Pyramide de Louvre - Paris - France
A late night Aperol special - Paris - France
Charles de Gaulle Airport - Paris - France
After locking ourselves into Paris for eternity, or until such time the locks are forcibly removed, we had an afternoon meal before finishing up with evening drinks somewhere in the 1st.
Paris, you are always a pleasure, and so nice to have you take part in this part of our journey. You're a city where we can both reminisce about what was, how we got there, and now also, where our collective futures will take us.
