A stroll in Paris
Dear readers,
It was a sunny Saturday in July. With Elena, we had decided to enjoy a few moments together and to go for a walk in Paris. We were supposed to meet at her place. So I went to his flat, in the heart of Paris with a bouquet of rosy peonies. I could not describe the reaction on her face when she saw her favorite flowers. She warmly thanked me, and put them into the most beautiful vase before we started our walk.
We went to the Luxembourg gardens. Hand in hand, we were admiring the sun whose rays penetrated through the trees. We heard birds singing and were both dreaming about our Parisian idyll. That day, the heat was bearable and the fresh breeze brought by trees made this walk even more enjoyable.
We went across the gardens until we fell on Bonaparte street, next to the Hungarian Institute. By far I noticed an object that satisfies my curiosity. I told myself that Paris is genuinely a city full of surprises. She was there, sitting on a bench. A young woman, barefoot simply wearing a summer dress. Her uniqueness came from the hat she was wearing, a battered broad-brimmed hat. Dear readers, I am not describing just a woman, I am speaking of a statue.
Sculpture springs to life
This creation puzzles by its realism. She keeps the eyes half-closed, and remains very thoughtful. She looks as if she were profoundly dreaming, resting her head in her hands, with a charming smile in the corners of her mouth. I observed her as I approached closer and closer to the bench on which she was sitting. There was enough room next to her for someone else. I found this very poetical, this invitation to the dream, to a spiritual journey. As a result, I imagined pedestrians puzzled by this woman in bronze, children bowing to her.
Elena was always by my side, she didn’t even realized I was immersed in my analysis. She was too busy admiring the charm of Parisian buildings. As we were getting closer to the statue, she said to me “This woman on the bench looks as if she was lost in her thoughts”. When Elena arrived next to the woman, her face diametrically changed. She looked surprised, something between joy and amazement with a note of sadness. At that moment, she understood that the woman was not real, that she was just a statue. She stayed in front of her, wondering how such a level of realism could have been achieved. After a while, we started walking again, she was holding my arm, and certainly thinking of the woman with the hat.
Dear readers, Paris hides so many surprises. “Open wide your eyes, Paris uncovers its treasures at every street corners”.
See you soon!