The Pure Cinematics: Se reveiller à Paris // Waking up in Paris

I can't believe the day finally came in which I'm moving back to Europe.

Although it's heartbreaking to leave people you love and adore behind, I can't lie: I'm happy to be coming back to a place where I am no longer a minority and where I understand the language. And I don't just mean "language" as the oral way of communication, I'm talking about that cultural way of speaking as well.

(I sit for a minute, wondering if this makes sense. And if so, how I can prove it does.)

Let's see... Where I am now, I know, and everyone around me knows (like some kind of unstated truth or rule, that everyone just naturally agrees on) that breakfast and coffee are a morning ritual, charm is essential and wine is sacred. People smile to each other, greet each other and are very likely to start a casual conversation with just about everyone.

Well, just this morning (6:00am) at the airport, I was patiently waiting in line for a taxi when the man in front of me began:

- Oh! Comme vous me semblez fatiguée! (Oh how you look so tired!)
- Mais.. ben oui. Très fatiguée! Je viens de terminer un voyage de 12 heures! (Well, yes. Very tired! I just ended a 12 hour flight!)
- Ah bon, vous venez d'ou?(Oh really? Where did you come from?)
- De l'autre côté du monde! (From the other side of the world!)
- Naturellement, vous êtes si fatiguée! (Leaves to put his luggage inside a taxi, comes back.) Bon, alors, bonne journée! (Naturally, you're tired!... Have a nice day then!)

Know what I meaaaaan!? If you've lived in Asia for quite some time, you'll know exactly what I mean.

Here are the pictures, so far:

On the plane, decided to go part English- part French for breakfast. Sausage and eggs, bread, yogurt and a little danish pastry. Oh, and coffee.

Already in Paris, we went to the coffee shop Les Deux Magots. It's right next to the naturally more renowned Café de Flore, but I've always liked Les Deux Magots more. Sartre and Beauvoir used to come here every day to write, did you know? Hmm.

While some had their breakfasts (naturally, it was only 9 o'clock in the morning)....