le dernier jour-the last day
The sun has officially gone down on my last day in Paris! When I imagined my last day in Paris, it was hard to pick somewhere I’d most want to end my 4-month long adventure with. After all the things I’ve learned, all the memories I’ve made, all the beautiful things I’ve seen….which was most important for me to see one last time??! I ended up going to the Montmartre district to pick up some last minute gifts and souvenirs; something I had been putting off all week since it is on the opposite side of town for me.
As it turns out, Montmartre may have been just the perfect place to end Paris with! When I reached the Sacre Coeur at the top of the hill, I found a large crowd of about 60 french people dressed up as santa claus! There were some with nipple rings, some with large bottles of vodka oj, some with red mohawks, and of course, nearly all had a lit cigarette. Obviously, this was not your normal christmas street caroler group. I asked the santa with “SANTAS OF ANARCHY-PARIS” scrawled on his back what was going on. He said they were having a santa gathering and were gonna party parade into Paris. It reminded me of the “metro parties” I’ve heard so much about; french hipsters who gather in metros around the city and have parties on the metro and once they get kicked off, just pick up the party and hop on another metro! Man if I had more time here, I would’ve made friends with them for some crazy french hipster parties for sure!
Not far from the french hipster santas was a large crowd sitting on the steps of the Sacre Coeur listening to two guys singing and playing the guitar. There have been countless times these past 4 months where I have been walking somewhere and I’ll see a street musician and find myself stopped, unable to move away from the perfect moment: the way the music blends together with the surrounding static noise of life coupled with the backdrop of an incredibly beautiful building, but of course no one notices because they’ve been living in Paris their whole life! And then I stop and think to myself, “Holy shit, I’m in Paris.” Those are one of the things I love most about Paris. Like today, listening to a man with a french accent singing “No woman, no cry” by Bob Marley and the crowd of tourists singing along and facing the best panoramic view you can find of the city….what could beat that?? It’s things like these that make me forever grateful to have had this opportunity and why I hope all of you try to visit it too. The Eiffel Tower, the Notre Dame, the Louvre, etc. etc. are all beautiful, but it really is the surroundings that make it. Paris would be nothing without the people, music, ambiance, and even its tourists. But I realize that this is not the only city that has this beauty and I’m fortunate to be going home to San Francisco a city equally as beautiful and full of life as Paris. I’m anticipating a lot of reverse homesickness once I’m back in the states, but I’m looking forward to rediscovering this same essence of life back in my city!
Au revoir Paris! Je t’aime et tu me manqueras mais San Francisco, j’arrive!
