I’m sitting in a small Parisian corner café with my brother. He’s drinking Abbaye Affligem, the house pour, and I’m sipping a tiny decaf noisette. The coffee is pretty, and bitter.It’s 8pm, and the place is full of middle-aged gentlemen reading papers, chatting and slipping handfuls of potato chips from bowls into their chompers, between mouthy declarations and short laughs. Tinny dance music infuses the quiet air behind the bar, a few tables away.
It’s a pleasure to sit, since we’ve been on our feet for hours, and hours every day. I allow myself to be carried away when I have hours to walk. Apparently, Kieran does too. So we walk, all over.
Because of a mutual interest in observing the ‘real Parisian way,’ Kieran and I have casually aimed our stride away from touristic spots in the city. But we’ve been happy to find that our mild efforts don’t usually work; instead, Paris guides you, by its winding thoroughfares and appealing bustle, back to its grandest spots. So actually, we’ve already climbed Montmartre, visited Le Grande Epicerie at Le Bon Marche, picnicked at the Seine’s humble haunches, and broken numerous baguettes.
Indeed, we’ve also made a few intentional touristic stops. Chins in hands, we gave critique to Rembrandt’s depictions of Christ at the Louvre. We’ve walked through several outdoor flea markets. Today, we attempted a visit to Jim Morrison’s gravesite at the cemetery at Pere Lachais, but lost interest, conversed about the end of the world and, upon exiting, found Edith Piaf’s gravesite instead. (It is white stone, endearing and well-kept.)
And we’ve done a couple of things that travelers don’t often put at the top of their lists: we saw The Hangover 2 at a French theater, and unwittingly wandered out past the last stop on Metro ligne 8, into a French mall and a French McDonald’s, to use its wifi.
But one of my favorite pastimes on this particular Parisian excursion is something I do regularly, and everywhere: pausing to reflect and write – especially at a coffee shop with a particularly good view. Each day here in Paris, we’ve found exceptional café spots, we've sat for a measurable time. Kieran pulls out a book and I either read or write, and we watch the people of Paris pass.
We find that it’s easy to blend in and observe, especially when we relax.
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