Previous episode : https://nathjy.travel.blog/2020/10/08/the-purple-rose-bouquet-episode-iii-lucie/

Metro closed… Damn, it took us at least two hours to get here from the Great Neighbours! She’s always so prolific and passionate, Lucie, and I’m always so talkative. It’s almost 1.30 am, we are a stone’s throw away from her uncle’s flat where she lives, and I am a two hour walk from Fred’s place, the friend who hosts me in his studio in the rue de la Convention in Montreuil. Well, well finally, isn’t it a unique opportunity to get back in touch a little more deeply? Everything has gone so well so far. She has obviously digested the blow I dealt her ten years ago. She also had to understand a little that her overwhelming enthusiasm had something to do with it. She must have seen, especially her, the doctor in Ayrouvidda – I’ll never get used to those foreign names! – that my rhythm wasn’t hers, that she wanted to go too fast, and above all that now I’m ready!

I turn to her who, for once, is mute, I look at her, smile at her. And then I didn’t understand anything: she came up to me in one go, took me by the shoulders, kissed me on the cheek, said « good luck on the way back », then she turned around and in three big strides she disappeared into the entrance of her uncle’s building. And then I understood everything: it won’t be tonight, and I have two hours of walking ahead of me, because given the state of my finances, there’s no way I’m going to take a taxi!

Luckily, the temperature is mild for a spring night. No rain in sight and no risk of getting lost, as I have recently invested in a new smartphone which, unlike the old one, works perfectly. I enter Fred’s address and it tells me direction rue Campagne Première… that of the building where Lucie lives. What if I tried my luck and rang the doorbell? Mmmh risky ! She did indeed plant me. It’s not that she didn’t see and understand the situation, it’s that she wanted to. An ordeal? Maybe she did. But why? To measure my boldness and courage to return to the assault and thus measure my attachment to her? Or, on the contrary, my audacity and courage to let her get so close to the goal and let her digest it quietly without rushing things? Because women have their own rhythm, and if you refuse to respect it… Well, the message is clear, no need to ring the bell, it is the second hypothesis that must be the right one. So let’s go ahead and walk towards Boulevard Montparnasse.

I arrive at the height of the Port-Royal station, all glass and still magnificently illuminated on this spring night. It reminds me of a photo shoot 10 years ago. Lucie had just bought herself a beautiful camera: a digital reflex camera. It had taken us two hours to find the necessary settings to take the ideal picture of the illuminated station. It was the exposure time setting that finally proved to be the right solution. We had also finished around 1am, but it was freezing cold as it was the middle of winter. As I was staying at the Crous right up to the back, this hadn’t been a problem. We quickly warmed up with a cup of tea and… ah, memory, memory, don’t think about it too much, the contrast with tonight is too painful!

Come on, cheer up, I’m lengthening my stride, because if I want to get some sleep tonight, don’t go soft. I attack the Boulevard Port-Royal, which is downhill and leaves the Escurial on my right, thinking back to the films we saw there together: « Go, live and become », I wonder if she is still fascinated by the tent camps in the desert. This film had moved her a lot, and I had laughed a lot at times. I wanted to see « King Kong » and she politely liked it. « Kingdom of Heaven », which had made us both dream. « Blood Diamond », with Leonardo DiCaprio. Which makes me think that I still haven’t seen « Titanic », and yet God knows that she insisted many times, because « he’s a cult »! « Don’t tell anyone », with Cluzet, I’m still trembling… and so many others.

Lost in my thoughts, I walked along the Boulevard St Marcel at a brisk pace, and here I am in the Boulevard de l’Hôpital with the Austerlitz train station on the right, and housed under the metro line n°5, the reception « 11 bis » of Secours Catholique where she used to go one morning a week to serve breakfast to the homeless from there… well, it was there, because the little light from the few street lamps still present reveals to me that the building is completely destroyed. It’s true that Austerlitz is in the process of getting a new look. But the homeless are probably not so homeless, because a row of tents still remain, and I seem to see a gang toasting at 8.6, looking for a sleep that only comes thanks to ethanol. What a waste of all these lost lives that no longer interest many people now that it is « the » crisis.

Pont d’Austerlitz, the quiet and black Seine, and a little further on, the Gare de Lyon, where I am expected tomorrow for the 10h30 of Mâcon, car 17, place 35, for a quick return to my salads, beans, tomatoes and other courgettes that are certainly waiting for me more than Lucie. I don’t know the names of the streets anymore. This is no longer our corner here. No memories to attach to these streets. They will be nameless streets until the Convention where I could finally collapse on the mattress that Fred has lent me. And enjoy his snoring… unless, as he says, « the hunt was good » and he snores in the bed of a lady who won’t sleep at night. But he did not fail to tell her. As long as this nasal problem is not solved, no woman will stay with him, or even no more than 3 months, the time to die of exhaustion.

Fred’s building door, digicode, three more floors and a door and I will finally be able to lie down and sleep, with ten kilometres in my paws and a disappointment at least as long. Click click click, door crossed. No Fred, or else he’s dead, because everything is silent. I’ll be able to get some sleep… well maybe… well, if I can stop thinking about her… well, tomorrow’s going to be a long day and my salads will still think I have a funny head.

Par Jean-Yves

Next episode : https://nathjy.travel.blog/2020/10/18/the-purple-rose-bouquet-episode-v-lucie/

Translated with http://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)