‘Tis the season to be jolly but ’tis also the season for torrential downpour, transit strikes and Christmas shopping here in Paris. The cessation of mass transit seems to have filled the streets with more cars, and the related traffic jams and perpetual honking have reached epic proportions. But it’s still Paris…and it’s even more magically beautiful than ever.
The French favor understated holiday decorating and the streets are additionally attractive with tasteful garlands and tiny lights. The sidewalks however, especially in our neighborhood which features some of Paris’ most impressive department stores, are total chaos. Last weekend the streets felt cheek to jowl and I mostly opted out, and happily stayed in, enjoying a couple of movies backdropped by the sound of rain.
I can’t recommend highly enough the movie, The Aftermath with Keira Knightley, Jason Clarke and Alexander Skarsgard. It’s set in 1946 post-war Hamburg, a city which experienced more bombing in two days than London did during the entire duration of the war. The British government are requisitioning homes and Alexander Skarsgard plays a german architect forced to play host in his home to an English Colonel and his wife. Loyalties are divided, consciences are conflicted, and palpable grief over the dead engulfs the living.
The story is smart, sexy and suspenseful. I was glued to the screen the entire time watching this story unfold in the hands of the brilliantly talented Ridley Scott. Stories set in war times are so powerful because people seem distilled to their basest selves under intense duress, and I am constantly moved by evidence of demonstrations of impressive humanity in the bleakest of times.
It seems impossible to imagine Paris engulfed in the strife of warfare when I walk down the beautiful ancient streets of today. We return home in a week and the most solider-like things in our midst are the ordered line of packed suitcases panting beside the door. Rupert cannot wait to re-establish daily life in such relative peace and quiet, meanwhile Georgia is busily planning her next adventures, having done what’s become a very non-dramatic exit from Fashion school.
That’s a whole story unto itself but being wary of being sued for defamation of (school) character, I’m going to keep quiet on the matter, but I can say the administration was entirely unreceptive to the entire class meeting with them with its concerns about the quality of the teaching and that to date 12/30 students have withdrawn. I am very well versed in the ‘hazing’ period of institutions, having been in the military, and they are of course known to be exceedingly difficult, but hazing this was not. I can’t decide which was more bizarre or disturbing: what the kids witnessed and experienced or the fact that Georgia’s letter outlining her concerns to the school went unanswered except by them saying they would be informing the police and government of her withdrawal and that her visa will be revoked.
So we are all coming home next week and Georgia is then heading to the land down unda (…”where the women glow and the men thunda”…) to see my parents and to try her hand at all things ‘FM’ as my dad calls them. (That’s ‘Farm Management’ in case you wonder and it’s a full time enterprise managing all the critters, which include some new recruits of the poultry variety, nicknamed ‘The Chimbos’ (or chicken bimbos) because while they are very feathery and beautiful, they are very low in the brains department.) So Georgia is trading her thimble for a pair of overalls, and if anyone can pivot it is she. She is completing her applications for design schools for next year and until then is getting a working holiday visa to go walkabout in the Southern Hemisphere.
And for yours truly, my chapitre francais has come to a close. I’m disappointed because there is still so much I’ve not experienced. I really wanted to see the first signs of spring pop out and waken the city from the chilly clutches of winter. There are places I haven’t seen, streets I haven’t walked, restaurants I’ve not visited, and cooking classes not taken. I can’t help feel there is never enough time.
In The Aftermath movie, Keira Knightley’s character laments her husband’s constant absence and says they need more time. He replies:
“I know. This is not what any of us wanted…but here we are.”
Yes, here we are. Any of us, and all of us, and aren’t we darned lucky to be here, living in the relative peace that most of us reading this do. It really is a common human trait to succumb to the feelings of regret when life doesn’t go as we hoped, but being in a state of constant change seems to be the very definition of life. Unpredictability is an intriguing enigma: it is one of the biggest constant challenges for most of us, and yet by its very nature it can propel us forward in ways we could never have dreamt. Constant change keeps us learning and it keeps life exciting. Tim Ferris reminds us:
“The opposite of happiness is not sadness. It’s boredom.”