PARIS: The Day After...

December 20, 2015 • Leave a Comment

LE JOUR D'APRÈS...

It's a quiet day. No one feels like stepping out of the apartment, though if it was just me, I would still head out and go about my touristy business. But...Xavier is hearing none of that. And Alexus is looking at me with huge eyes clearly conveying "you're crazy". I'm thinking, come on guys, what happened to all that "Fuck the terrorists" talk from last night?

But shock and fear set in for some, and others not so much. I understand that. I get that. But I also get that to stay inside and hide in fear is exactly the reaction that "they" want. That this could have happened anywhere, anytime and any place, and you can't stop going about everyday life.

News reports nothing new, the city is in a state of mourning. FB status updates tells me that the peeps I know in Paris are out and about, walking the streets, enjoying themselves regardless of the events from the night before, but obviously with an air caution.

So I convince the daughter to come and walk around the 13e with me. We walk the 5 minutes to Place Jeanne d'Arc and check out the Paroisse Notre-Dame de la Gare. It's noon and there's hardly no one out and about in this area.

Walk another few minutes at we're at the BnF -- Bibliothèque nationale de la France / Bibliothèque François Mitterrand - why it goes by 2 names, I'm not sure. Of course it's closed, with security strolling the perimeter. We debate crossing the Seine here to go over to Parc Bercy, but it's cold and rainy and you could tell Alexus doesn't really want to venture too far.

There's an H&M and Sephora across the street so we head there to see if we can spend some euros (today, our plan was to go to Disneyland Paris, but no way we were taking the train to this tourist hotspot the day after, and it ended up being closed for 3 days anyway). Closed as well, and totally understandable.

So we head to our croissant and coffee spot, Exki and sit there for a bit.

Time to go back to the apartment, we grab some groceries to restock Xavier's fridge, and more beer and wine.

The next day, we leave for the airport at 8:30am, and it takes almost 2 hours to get there (should have taken 30 minutes!). The RER to the airport is closed for construction - yeah right, construction! So we're detoured and shuttled around and get to CDG super late and worried because in our minds the airport must be jam-packed with people and extra security. Nope - there wasn't, it was smooth sailing.

So that's it for my weekend trip to Paris - still love this city and would go back in a heartbeat!

Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité