We were down to our last few euros on our final day in Paris, so we decided to take a stroll around the latin quarter, drinking in the sights and sounds. Paris for the second time is still as enchanting.
| ‘Writing Home Elsewhere’. How apt to see this on the standee a day before we were headed for home. |
We had baguettes for breakfast in the morning. The locals eat their baguettes on the go, so we decided to blend in. I remember eating one on the metro, without getting any weird stares from passengers, and finishing it down to the last bite. Exciting times. Doing this back home would get me kicked out of the train instantly. #YOLO #YouOnlyLoafOnce
| Lazing around the Jardin des Tuileries. Wish I could be here all day long, licking gelato, reading a book |
As we walked the stretch, from Quai de Conti, to the Louvre, to Arc de Triomphe, and down to Champs-Elysees, we were calm & quiet, letting every corner of this city spill and whisper its beauty, before we leave.
| Gare du Nord |
This is the last of my Paris photos, taken right before we headed back to London to catch our flight back home. Despite all the misadventures, my #50daysofeuropesummer has been nothing but an absolute dream. I’ll miss this terribly, but glad to be back with the family.
“You get a strange feeling when you’re about to leave a place, I told him, like you’ll not only miss the people you love but you’ll miss the person you are now at this time and this place, because you’ll never be this way ever again.” – Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran
I can’t make you stay, so I’ll write a poem about you. Summer 2014, here’s one for the books –
Summer, My Lover
Always, when I leave,
there are traces of you
that make a home in me
At an avenue,
the sun blinding my view
of you, skipping down
the cobblestones
lined with the homeless
forgotten in light
Lost in the interweaving
of architecture & junctions.
But your laughter, filling up
the alleys was enough to coat
the grime & grit
& dingy metros
Leading me back
to a familiar landmark. You
burst with colour; reds & yellows
& glinting greens
Our days were speckled gold,
time & space a blur
dissolving into a line, stretching
far into the horizon
But like lovers,
like all lovers,
we parted in silence.
When I miss that afternoon
we leaped over fences & gates
after spending
the last of our Euros
on ice-cream, I call you up to say
these reckless feet
are missing your streets
& how easily we got away
But I remember you looking on
as I packed my bags to leave,
you said you’d wait
for our next adventure
under the endless lemon skies.
A lonely teardrop escaping,
falling,
into the Pacific
won’t make a difference
in the miles that will separate
you
& I
and all at once,
you grew faint in the distance
the clouds swallowing my feet
The ends of my lips curling, sighing,
folding you into song
Let me breathe you in memory,
let me feel your redolent skin,
your warmth enveloping me
on lazy, sun-drenched mornings
When it is time, I will find
my way back to return,
like a child, springing into
the vastness of your arms
–
The Book Jacket 