Paris- Day 1, meeting a local

Paraphrased from my journal
July 9
Paris- On our first day in Paris (July 7), Dwayne, Ian and I arrived at our hostel located on the far north side of the city. In fact, the hostel was so far north, the street it was on did not exist on my map. Thankfully, we found the place without much trouble, and we arrived in the early evening.



On the train to Paris, I had only eaten a raisin croissant (which I pretended was lunch). So after dropping off our bags, our first order of business for Paris was food. Our hostel's receptionist, Reggie, recommended a small restaurant down the steep hill from the front door of our building.

"The french cuisine there is f**king incredible," he said.

The restaurant did not open for dinner for another hour, so Reggie suggested a stroll to the Sacre Coeur (Sacred Heart Basilica). About two blocks away from the front steps of the Basilica we came across a little, old lady (she was truly very small and quite elderly). We were walking our normal pace (as fast as three young men would) thus we overtook her quite quickly. As we came to pass her, she immediately engaged us, with French flowing at us like a waterfall. She spoke so fast that even Dwayne could only understand her every dozen words or so. She was very nice and seemed well intentioned so we continued walking with her, with Dwayne nodding so often and responding in a few french words here or there. She reached for Dwayne's hand and he helped lead her down the cobblestone sidewalk.



So there we were in front of the Basilica. Dwayne is discussing something with an elder lady. Ian strolled about 6 feet back, I did as well (taking many pictures). Every so often Dwayne would come to believe he partially understood what this little woman was saying and would translate a brief portion for Ian and I. Apparently she was saying something about the beauty of Paris, and something about her two sons as well (we think).

Eventually we reached the steps of the Basilica. The lady reached out her empty left hand toward me and I stepped forward and Dwayne and I helped her climb the stairs to the entrance. I left her to open the door, and that's where we separated.



At first we were concerned that she would continue to need our help, but she moved along ahead and continued as she probably has done hundreds of times before. The three of us walked along the left side of the church, watching her with a naive sense of concern until we saw her sitting down and praying. The Basilica and its beauty seemed pretty trivial at this point, so we left and made our way to dinner during what was already a great first day in Paris.