Planning & Re-Planning & the Kindness of Strangers - Monday, 6 October

My plan was to see an exhibit called "The Disasters of War" at the Louvre today, the last day of its run.

Well, I certainly wouldn’t classify my afternoon as a disaster, but my plans didn’t quite turn out the way I hoped!

Before heading off to the Louvre, I had a nice café crème in my neighborhood – a terrific double espresso, two packets of sugar, and hot milk in a very cute pitcher with little dimples for your fingers. The pitcher itself was warmed up too – love the little details of service here, even when sitting on the sidewalk.  So far, so good, right?

Then I hopped the #39 bus down to the Louvre. The bus stop was right next to this lovely little “pocket park” called Square de Louvois, just across from the Bibliothèque Nationale (National Library) on rue de Richelieu. The library has been under renovation for some time, and there was a fire there about a year-and-a-half ago that destroyed part of the roof and made the renovation site even more of a mess than it would otherwise be. But work continues. 

Sadly, I couldn’t grab my camera fast enough to take a picture through the bus window of a sign that was hanging on one of the fences outside the library – it was a drawing of a smiling construction worker in a hardhat and contained the text “chant interdite” – basically meaning singing prohibited on the job (or so I thought). Ha! If that were true, I would surely get kicked out of that workplace!  But it actually means "worksite closed" (to the public).

Then to the Louvre with just a couple hours to see the exhibit and other stuff before they closed. Crowds weren’t too terrible, but I had a hecuva time finding the exhibit. No signage, no evidence of it in the temporary exhibit area of the Richelieu wing where my info said it would be. I'm guessing that it had closed some days ago. Not a disaster, but a disappointment. So I wandered around looking at other stuff and doin’ some shoppin’ and whatnot until the “we’re closing in 15 minutes” announcement. My plan was to take the bus back to the apartment, drop off my purchases, grab a bite somewhere and then head out to Cite de la Musique for a concert at 8:00 (details of that in my next post).

My Croque-Monsieur and
Leffe ("a meal in a glass!")
just across from the
Comedie-Francaise

It had started drizzling and I had left my umbrella at home, but I thought no problem – I can tolerate the rain for a couple minutes while waiting for my bus. But a few minutes came and went and I consulted my really swell new RATP app, only to discover that the bus was held up somewhere and I’d be waiting – in the rain – for 15 minutes – maybe.  It had started raining harder, my legs hurt, I was grumpy – time to regroup! I walked over to a café about a block away to wait out the rain (I hoped) and get some nourishment. Well, the rain didn’t let up and time was running short so it was time to regroup again! There was a taxi queue just across the street, so I decided to head over there to grab a taxi to Cite de la Musique for the concert. Unfortunately, taxis were in short supply (did I mention that it was raining?!?) so I had to stand there for a while, getting more and more soaked.

But then a nice young middle-Eastern looking man carrying an umbrella came up behind me, said “bon soir, madame,” and just held his umbrella over my head until a taxi came. Such a kind gesture! God bless that stranger!

A city this huge with so many people (residents & tourists) and so many language and cultural barriers has the very real potential of being terribly impersonal and competitive. But clearly (and happily) it doesn't have to be that way.