Come in the middle? Here’re links to ➡️ Chapter One, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9 , Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14 , Chapter 15 , Chapter 16, Chapter 17, Chapter 18, Chapter 19, Chapter 20, Chapter 21, Chapter 22, Chapter 23, Chapter 24, Chapter 25 , Chapter 26, Chapter 27, Chapter 28, Chapter 29, Chapter 30, Chapter 31, Chapter 32, Chapter 33, Chapter 34, Chapter 35, Chapter 36, Chapter 37, Chapter 38, Chapter 39, Chapter 40
Bridges
The days are short in Paris: Sunrise in winter at 8:38, sunset at 4:53: Check your city and compare Sunrise/ Sunset.
After the long walk west on Rue des Francs-Bourgeois that turns into Rue Rambuteau to the closed Pompidou, I returned to stand by the Seine at Quai Henry IV near my apartment as the sun took its slide down.
I have heard it’s easy to be without love in Paris.
But as the bateau slides with the setting sun, I can think only of Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant when she kisses him and, if I remember correctly, she says, “Can’t kiss back?” And then he does. And again. Or have I made this up? She says, “When you come on, you come on.” We are in Charade where no one is who they say they are except perhaps for Audrey/Reggie.
Or is she?
She must deal with the changing names and perhaps personas of Cary/Peter, Adam, Brian. Have I got them all? Does it matter?
Isn’t three the perfect number as identity is the question. Is it not always the question?
And the river shows the way as it journeys through the city beneath the 32, or is it 37 bridges?
Or click here for all the bridges where you can pretend you were with me: as I recall and as Paris is blanketed in morning snow.
Coming next: Chapter 42, “Repair” Table of Contents
Love,
Such a reflective post, Mary. Wonderful words.
Oh I love this chapter. It reads like a poem, the meaning under the bridge as “the river shows the way.” Feeling you tip toeing further and further into that river that is you, dear Mary.