Freedom....

Freedom means many things to many people...but just in the realm of living, let me share some thoughts currently making their way through my frantic mind...(the picture above was taken during the recent sunny streak a week or so ago, a miniature of the Statue of Liberty--that symbolic French gift of freedom to America--that stands on an island in the middle of the Seine...we used to take many sunset walks there when we lived in our old apartment).

I am in the middle of a lovely visit from my Aunt L and cousin M, and we spent a day crawling up rue de Passy as M zipped from one heavenly delight--make-up heaven Sephora--to another--the many clothes shops titillating her with their latest fashion offers....as LnL followed along in amused fashion doling out the various opinions when requested. We lunched on sushi, their first running sushi experience, and then ended the day, as I have so many times, at Trocadero. Here there is only one goal and that is to gaze at: Here we whipped out our respective cameras to capture from our different points of view la belle tour. My favourite was the family self-portrait I garnered from arm's length with blind guessing at the viewfinder....ha ha...if that isn't a bunch of character, I don't know what is!

I gathered the arm loads of shopping bags from everyone and left them off to explore the newly installed aquarium at Trocadero and took the 32 bus (my green limo) home through Passy, parc de Ranelagh, deposing me at my usual stop...home to prep a dinner of Raclette...

Along the way it suddenly struck me that this is one of the last 'tours' I'll be giving of my beloved Paris to one of the many, many wonderful visitors we've had over the years. What has become second nature to me, to rattle off random stories, directions, history, point out this and that in the neighbourhood that has changed over the years....zip into this store and that to pick up whatever, lunch at our favourite pizza, sushi...fill in blank....place.....and to pick the raised, single, window seat on the bus that allows me to gaze, ever appreciatively, at the Haussman apartment buildings, hideous 70's additions and various stores along the way that always please the senses....the flower stores with their ridiculously priced but beautifully arranged blooms, the traiteurs catering to the haute bourgeoisie, the ever artistic window displays at the couture baby shops, used luxury goods stores....you name it....finally the ride through Parc de Ranelagh, where the seasons passed and were always identified by the status of the chestnut trees, flowers circling the various statues and children running amok at the various playgrounds and creches or waiting to ride the donkies up and down the sidewalk...I always feel sorry for those poor asses ;)


And so I see the freedom to live my every day life, inbetween glimpses of grandeur that have seen the centuries pass by, dwindling....I know that we move on to new experiences, new freedoms--freedom from restrictions, freedom to roam & breathe, freedom to fling open my windows and blast arias, Aqua or absolutely nothing....but still there is the sadness at saying goodbye to my freedom to daydream in a setting so surreal I still wonder that I have been able to live such richness....siiiigh.....but as the French say so fittingly, it is not goodbye, but Aurevoir...