Jari+Paris=Jaris

So, I returned to Paris because I was feeling down and I needed a fix: I'm starting to think I might not be able to fix this problem while still in France. It's like trying to quit opium while living in a poppy field. Or ninety minutes away from a poppy field. Or, indeed, just an opium den because it's not like I have to make the Paris myself. Anyway, I still haven't kicked the habit, is what I'm saying.

All my regular Paris chums were busy or out of town this weekend but that's okay because someone irregular was there.

I'd like to thank the Academy...

JARI!
Jari has his own Paris posse whom he had been neglecting for some years but when I took up residence nearby, he finally said 'ca suffit' and decided to come visit. He actually arrived on Friday, but I was 'working' (read: playing games with disinterested French teenagers) so met up with him on Saturday; we went to Notre Dame (of course) and I briefly introduced him to Shakespeare and Company (sadly, Dani wasn't there for me to show off). We hung in the lovely little park which is just opposite Notre Dame and was absolutely sublime that day.

Jari then went to get lunch with an old friend he hadn't seen for ages and I went to check in to my hostel, and met what must be the only hostel receptionist in Paris who doesn't speak any English; I don't mean to be anglocentric, but I would genuinely have expected that to be a requirement for working such a job. After seven months of having lived in France, I had just enough French to sign in and get my room key (after a few rounds of charades). After this, Jari and I reconvened and went for a stroll along a lovely raised-walkway-cum-public-gardens that my sister and I had found near Gare De Lyon back in January.

Yet again, there was something paradisal about this leafy promenade in the sun; there was a calming air about the place, no one was rushing from point A to point B, everyone seemed content to mosey and take it all in. It was absolutely divine.

After this, we went for crepes at a restaurant Dani took me to during my first weekend in Paris and which has become my favourite place to eat in the city. Then, we sat out in front of Notre Dame and tried to capture its terrifying nocturnal magnificence on our camera phones. Somehow, this didn't work.

It kinda looks like it's made of cardboard in this one.

The next day, Jari and I met for breakfast and then strolled around one of the less picturesque areas of Paris, where there was an absolutely colossal flea market selling just about everything. We were calculating the odds of there being something genuinely valuable there and, given the size of this bazaar, I wouldn't have been surprised had the arc of the covenant been revealed to be amongst its contents.
Afyer this, Jari went off to get lunch with a different group of friends and I went and read in Luxembourg park. Jari's two hour break suddenly turned into a three hour trip, and then a four hour sejour and then a five hour ordeal. Like many modern people, despite oft describing myself as 'an avid reader', I can't actually read for all that long and then I remembered that there was a poetry reading event at Shakespeare and Company- the same event I attended during my first ever weekend living in France. Since it was my final weekend living France and I am, by genetics, pre-disposed to appreciate symmetry, I decided to attend this event again. Much like the first time, my poems were very well-received and I was praised for my wit, turn of phrase and, in particular, my voice. The woman who runs the poetry event described it as 'lovely and refined' and Roseanne, a girl I met at the reading, said it was 'chocolatey and smoothe'; and since, as Mark Twain* said, 'I can live for two months on a good compliment', I won't need to eat again until August.
After the reading, I walked with Roseanne and some Americans who also attended for a bit before retiring to Gare du Nord to see Jari one last time and then catch my train.

It was a superb weekend, full of sunshine, laughter and ego boosts. This may be my final visit to Paris for some time, so I'm very glad that it turned out so well, but I am a bit sad that I didn't get to bid farewell to the people who have made my frequent trips there so enjoyable- I'd list them all, but that would feel cheap, especially after I did that just last month to the folks in Edinburgh just to get views, but if you're reading this and you're one of my Paris friends, thank you- hopefully, I'll see your city and you again one day.

*Who died 105 years ago this very day.