Streets are the theater of more protests today, youths confronting police armed for battle. At the place Denfert-Rochereau a stand-off is underway when I emerge from the Métro. The surrounding avenues are eerily vacant of traffic, cordoned off by the troops, and shops are closed. Here and there, people are huddled in little groups, murmuring, waiting, wondering, watching.
That’s a portrait of the neighborhood. That’s also a portrait of the country: Force vs. protest.
And it’s a perfect October day, not clear, not foggy, subdued light even in the sun, a crispness lingering over the boulevards as if to hint that colder days are approaching, that we have arrived here quickly and will be always where we are, quickly, like autumn turning to winter, without us knowing when or how or what.
Where we are, quickly
About the Author: zenscribe
Enseignante Zen et poète, Sensei Amy “Tu es cela” Hollowell est née et a grandi à Minneapolis, aux Etats-Unis. Arrivée en France en 1981 pour étudier la littérature et l’histoire, elle y est restée, s’installant à Paris, où elle élève ses deux enfants et gagne sa vie en tant que journaliste.
The Zen teacher and poet Amy “Tu es cela” Hollowell Sensei was born and raised in Minneapolis, but came to France in 1981 to study literature and history and has lived in Paris ever since, raising her two children and making a living as a journalist.
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