Going Nowhere

May 13, 2016

I loved this city more than anything. I was in love with architecture and the people. I loved the sunny days and the rainy days; the tourists and the prideful locals, even the sound of birds and the different aura. Paris was comfort. If there was ever a home to me, it could probably be pinpointed as Paris.

 

“Okay, so what is the plan for today?” Callie questions, hiding behind an abrasively large tourist’s map of Paris. “I was think Notre Dame and the Louvre?”

 

I shake my head. “The Louvre is going to take all day. Even if you don’t get lost, it will take forever.”

 

“Tomorrow then?” Sophie questions, tilting her sunglasses back onto her head. “I wanted to go and see the bridge with all the locks on it anyway.”

 

“That’s right down the street,” I note, remembering the last time I had been in the city. “We could walk down their afterwards.”

 

Everyone seems to nod along, not realizing that this would only take up two and a half to three hours of our day. I decide not to tell them, figuring we will be able to find some other tourist-type attraction easily. So, we venture out of the square we had been standing absentmindedly in and head towards the cathedral of Notre Dame.

 

I, being the official tour guide after having lived in France over an extended period of time, inform them of some of the artifacts and themes in and around the cathedral. Before we even get near the thing, I inform them of the differing colors of the glass on each side, representing the Old and New Testament. I inform them on the statues engraved along the front.

 

Ashton seems to follow along, and so does Emma; but Luke, Callie and Soph seemed to have lost interest or had become distracted. I don’t worry about it too much, instead focusing on leading them through the throngs of people. I nearly want to pull out a rope and have them all hang onto the handles.

 

Even when we do get there, I let them loose and worry for them getting lost. I had no interest going inside, as I didn’t have the cash on me, or the interest. After telling them I wouldn’t be going in and planning a time to meet back, I turned to take a walk down the side of the Seine.

 

The trees that scattered along the edges of the street were beginning to bloom. I took note of the delicate way the leaves shook when the spring breeze came through. I crossed my arms, not entirely cold, but not entirely warm either.

 

I leisurely found my down and around bends, conscious of the time and the people around me. Even if I had been a local, I was still weary. It would be easier if someone was walking beside me. People are less likely to come after those in numbers.

 

I pass under the lock bridge, well the main one. They had to reinforce the metal again recently. There were so many they had nearly had to reconstruct the bridge altogether. Many other bridges surround it were being filled as well. Nearly all the bridges in Paris had at least one lock on them.

 

I never saw the point in it. An everlasting love that can only be proven through a flimsy cart vendor’s lock and a key that will ultimately bring metal poisoning to the river? I never did have anyone who came to mind anyway. There was no point in making such a pointless act of ‘love’ other than for show. If you have to prove it, you must be trying to keep it together.