Tibz: blog

I may or may not have a crush on one of the gorgeous frasian girl working at Uniqlo… 

For the second time in this city, I’ve had a wonderful and surreal experience, tonight in Paris.

I was meeting a friend over for dinner, to catch-up on this past year and a half, and I had the confirmation of the gut-feeling I’ve had when I first met him: although we have a few year of difference, we are very similar in our way of thinking, in our personal life philosophies, and the way we approach what comes up in our own lives.

As we were finishing dinner, the woman sat next to us at the terrace started pivoting her chair in order to sit facing the street. She was a woman dressed very well, probably about to hit 70 years old within a few years. She had a sense of style and fashion that looked very french, very elegant, but not out of place or over the top. You try to guess that, sitting at a café, she was seemingly a woman of culture and taste, enjoying the humble pleasures that Paris has to offer.

My friend politely excused himself for a having been in her line of sight, as a gentleman would do.

They started a conversation that I then joined ; she was complaining about the increase of big signage in Paris, and how it limited access. She said she was working in Arts, and as someone in this line of work, you tend to try and look at things from a beauty and artistic perspective. She made the right argument that it was getting harder to appreciate this wonderful city, is big metallic signs were displayed all around, blocking the sight of the gorgeous Haussmanian buildings.

The conversation continued and we soon learnt that she had travelled all around the world, had several nationalities, self-made children in high places around the planet, and that she had lived a great life. Within 10mn, my friend and myself were having a friendly conversation with this total stranger whom, at first sight, didn’t necessarily have anything in common with us.

This woman, at age 77, spoke 3 languages fluently, with her children knowing around 4, and had been in the UK in the early 60’s, in New York for decades, moving back to  Paris, traveling to Australia to see her children, or moving down to Spain to enjoy the sun and a lifestyle that Parisians seems to have forgotten about decades ago. She was a gold mine of anecdotes, memories, culture, and wise knowledge. 

A light shone in her eyes when she was telling us about the work she was doing, when talking about the importance of knowing your roots and being a citizen of the world.

As the conversation continued we discovered that she had met and known Malcolm X, been in New York during the racial protests in 1968, witnessed the rise of the Rolling Stones and the Beatles from London, and could probably tell me more about Brighton than I would know after 4 years in the city.

There we were, a 70-something, talking to a 30-something and 20-something about her life, and discussing US politics with us, and talking about travelling, and the state of our motherland. I can only hope for myself to have led a similarly interesting life by the time I hit her age (*if* I hit her age.)

Nothing was meant to bring us together. However tonight, we all shared an hour of our time, together, discussing issues and learning from one another. This rich exchange is not something you can buy, it is not something that you can record or recreate. It is an ephemeral moment of time stretching, slowing down, moving you outside of your own bubble and comfort zone. It is a blessed time that will only remain in our memories, and it will be more meaningful that way.