Rainy Mouffetard

I dream myself back to rue Mouffetard often. I think it's because this market street is how I imagine Paris when I'm not with her. Imagining being in Paris goes in cycles. For while, after a visit, Paris is so present for me that I sometimes almost get up from my chair to head for La Hune to see what's new in my favorite bookstore. After a while I get used to not being there. I watch French movies and when Paris scenes flash on the screen a little involuntary sigh escapes me. I feel homesick, I miss her streets and the life in them, I miss the culture and the art, I miss the cafés and museums, I miss the parks, I even miss Sundays. Being in the middle of Paris life on rue Mouffetard centers me. This is what it would be like to live here. It is just a short walk from the apartment and shopping for food in Paris is an everyday event. Apartments are small with small fridges so you buy fresh almost everyday. In a different life that would be almost unbearably intrusive. But think of the benefits: you can decide just before dinner what you want to have; you can decide “What the heck, I'll just eat in this café”; you can sit and have a beer while you decide. Or perhaps, as I did on the day I made this image, you can just hang out and watch the people around you go about life in probably the same way it was done 100 years ago or even 200 years ago. The light has a difficult time reaching down into this street and the rain helps soften the edges of things making it all seem like a flashback to times past.