(TAN): November 1. Eleventh month of 2020. Feels like the last 10 months just whooshed by. This truly has been the slowest yet fastest year ever!
Ten months ago, I arrived with the dream of living in the beautiful, crazy city of Paris, never thought I’ll have the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of being confined in Paris! Well, turns out the opportunity isn’t onetime, I’ve been lucky (or unlucky) enough to be confined in Paris again!
The first confinement was at the fag end of winter, Parisians were just changing into their spring wardrobe, the terraces were just getting ready to open up. This time, the terraces were nearly closed, the mercury has dipped low in the city. Sunny days are rare finds.
Maybe the confinement will bring the sun with it, like the last time, when we had rare rainy days. We also had rare good news then with the world shutting down part by part. This time around it feels like the whole city is on life support, alive but ready to shut down any moment.
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Thankfully, the schools are still open. A few of us get to go out, see an empty Paris again. A Paris where everyone stays home and the pigeons have a free rule over the city! The chirp of birds became the music of the city last time, except for five mins at 8 pm, when all the balconies and windows came alive with applause. Five minutes of knowing that you are apart but not alone. Will that feeling prevail this time around too? Or have we become comfortable in confinement now?
A bus with just four passengers on a Friday night. Bars closed. No strains of laughter or music to be heard. The streets bathed in the soft yellow lights nearly empty. The six-minute walk from the bus stop to home suddenly feels strange, strange enough to reach for the phone and hear a comforting voice. A 1 am walk around the Louvre in the February cold had felt less strange.
Sundays are always slow in Paris. But looking out from the balcony, now everyday will be like Sunday. But Sundays with routine. A routine that developed in the last two weeks of March. The first two weeks of Confinement-1. And getting back to spending time alone. In a city with apartments the size of 8 m2, including showers, it’s a far cry away from the Parisienne dream!
A city that has fed and nurtured the dreams of millions, a city where millions find homes, or sometimes just a tent on the streets. Maybe if you are lucky, you find one with a shelter from the cold. Those with a little more luck, have a home and luckiest are those who don’t have to do it alone.
Paris is a survivor. Well, our world has seen worse and found joy again as has Paris. As will we. Apart but not alone. The streets might be dimly lit but there’s always a comforting voice or the smell of pizza to get you home.
The author is a student of patisserie at Le Cordon Bleu, Paris.
You can follow her on Instagram and Facebook.
