Cliché

Where would we be without all our cute clichés?

On the 27th of May, this year, I walked around happily in the 6th, ending up at a cute shop on rue Jacob to buy a piece of art and take it to Germany. “Osez le romantisme” was the name of the shop — so damn ironic is our little world, and so blind can one sometimes be… but that’s another story!

On my way back home, singing to myself, happy as a clam[1. If you want to know why we say this phrase, click here ;)] and smiling to everyone my eyes met. Passing over le Pont des Arts, I caught a glimpse of a couple adding one more of those padlocks after having engraved their names on it. “How stupid”, I then thought! But then I stopped again, and looked at the river. I took out my phone, snapped this and iMessaged it:

So it’s a cliché… or some might think it’s lame, or for tourists, or whatever… who cares?! “Osez le romantisme”, I thought; I also want my name on one of those locks one day!

Fast forward…

Yesterday, walking over to the office, mulling over the economy and Gaza and Ukraine and the next volcano eruption in Iceland… then over sadness and time and travel and blue eyes and happiness… then I stopped. I took out my phone, snapped this and Instagramed it:

…and got comments about working at the Champs Elysées and being chic and messages about the Eiffel tower cliché and Paris buildings that make it look like an open-air museum four tourists, and… so what?! The moment I snapped that picture, some of my melancholy momentarily went away, and I smiled.

Clichés are beautiful, but some people try stealing them from us. I’m taking good care of mine, and smile on secretly inside.

Here’s for fun; every “français” knows this well, and attaches it to a cliché:

[youtube=”http://youtu.be/NylkBq66KoA"]

Do you remember that
Little wooden bridge
…

Ok, I admit, that’s cheesy, but it makes me smile! Here’s another song for another wooden bridge, in Jordan actually, a very long time ago:

[youtube=”http://youtu.be/yvs6lQjuVJk]

Little wooden bridge
Swimming on the river
Dawn salutes you and laughs
Flower tips wake up
Your color is of water’s happiness
…
Little wooden bridge

Happiness is a moment; don’t think it, let it seize you.