After a hiatus of three years, at the end of my travel journey, I find myself in Paris where I have many memories and, somehow, it has a different vibe. I wonder if I have transformed due to the pandemic, but it certainly feels different to me. Nevertheless, Paris remains a beautiful city where architecture is intertwined with natural parks and beautiful plane trees. Every time I’m in Paris, I have to go to my favourite place, Saint-Germain-des-Prés, where I have fond memories and where famous writers and philosophers used to meet at Café ‘Les Deux Magots’. The Café played an important role in Parisian cultural life since 1885 and was frequented by Picasso, Fernand Léger, Hemingway and existentialists Jean-Paul Sartre & Simone de Beauvoir. Café Les Deux Magots is one of the oldest cafés in Paris, a very popular venue for tourists and one that holds many great memories of my visits to Paris and where I love to sit at the terrasse people watching.
Down memory lane, I recall walking on rue de Buci when I heard someone calling my name. To my surprise, it was Caroline Bouchard, who used to spend the Christmas holidays in Paris. I was visiting in December with dear friends of mine, Fay and her husband, before joining our friend, Louise, in Pujols. Unfortunately, both Fay & Caroline have departed our world and are shining like stars in heaven.
When we arrived in Paris, it was scorching hot during the heatwave and, fortunately, the next day it was nice and fresh, the way I like it for I truly enjoy walking through the streets lined with those huge trees I love so much. The heatwaves throughout Europe are a reminder that if humanity continues with this materialistic and greedy way of life, our world will no longer be able to sustain these kinds of heatwaves. There is a great risk that we may witness more and more catastrophic events. As the Secretary General of the United Nations warned, humanity faces ‘collective suicide’ over the climate crisis’.
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