My favorite moment of the week involved one of my favorite states of being ... mass confusion. I planned on meeting the parents of a friend who were visiting Paris, just to sit at a cafe together, chat and make fun of the passers-by. I had never met this couple before so we made very specific plans; we were to meet at the entrance to the courtyard of the Musee Carnavalet and I could identify them because they would both be wearing Obama supporter buttons. I arrived a bit early and decided to mail a letter at the post office just across the street from our meeting point and when I exited, I crossed the street and walked right into a couple matching the description of who I was meeting - about the right age group, at exactly our designated time and at our designated meeting place. And of course both sporting Obama buttons.
I introduced myself, we shook hands and we spoke for about 3 or 4 minutes, talking about the basics like how their stay has been and how the Parisians have been treating them. After a few minutes of exchanging niceties, I was about 10 seconds away from suggesting we sit down at a cafe as we had previously planned. But as I was waiting for the man to finish his sentence, he suddenly said "OK, bye" and took his wife's arm and headed off. I was stunned. Was it something I said? My hair? My boy purse? It wasn't until they had gotten halfway down the street that my mind first entertained the possibility that this wasn't the couple I was supposed to meet, which, it turned out, it wasn't.
After literally laughing out loud on the street corner where they left me and marveling at the odds of what had just taken place (exact time, exact place, same age, same description, Obama buttons), I couldn't help but wonder what those people must have been thinking about who (and maybe what) I was. I guess they were too polite to say anything like "who the hell are you?" or "WTF are you talking about?". I did end up meeting the right couple a bit later and thanked them for their part in creating my moment of the week.
This weekend was the first Spring-like weekend of the year here ... and it didn't go unnoticed.
It really seemed like every human in the city just ran out of their apartments and got to a cafe, a river bank or park. There's a tangible energy here when that happens and, if you can tolerate the lines everywhere, it's pretty good fun.
Some photos of the week:
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