(listen to the podcast ici!)

Ça va, Paris ? 

How have you been in the last few hours? You looked after me so well for the past week that there was not a moment that I didn’t feel loved, and London was so welcoming this morning with its persistent rain, which I welcomed with my persistent smile.

I slept through the Eurostar journey with my fancy sleep mask on as I managed to sit alone again (watch out for those empty priority seats when the train has started moving –  de rien !) after finishing the last pages of Siddharta by Herman Hesse – an essential rereading for me after almost thirty years.

The river’s tide was neither low nor high when I arrived at the pier, making the bridge toward the barges effortless to cross with my compact yet heavy bags. In any case, my heart was so light that everything felt easy and fun, even when I, by genuine mistake, walked through a chantier, an empty construction site, at dawn on my way from La Chapelle to Gare du Nord, got caught by a man sitting in an old car at the other end, who asked me to show him where I got in, and – oh great, now there was another man walking in our direction shouting at me and to the other guy saying it was closed where he was coming from! I assured ‘my’ guy that it was open, but after a long walk back to the other side suddenly everything was closed; no entrance was found. I have either unlocked a new super power, or the other guy went out leaving the entrance open and now he needed to make everyone believe that magic existed.

It was too late, either way; I already believed in magic. It was magic that I got out alive, and it was magic that my French was good enough to keep me alive in that situation: I was satisfied – or shall I say j’etait satisfaite – and smiled all the way to the Eurostar Premier Lounge after the guy finally let me out with his padlock key.

I was then reminded of my massive car accident in 2020, on my way to see the children for Christmas, when a huge lorry joined my lane without signalling, at about 60mph, and hit the passenger side of the tiny merco-benz I was driving. The car started spinning in a slow motion for half an eternity, during which I decided to let go of the steering wheel. Calmly. Unbelievably calmly. I wasn’t afraid; my heart wasn’t beating fast, not even as fast as when a gorgeous man on the tube catches my eyes. When the car stopped, in the middle of M6 motorway, I sat there, now peacefully, waiting for ‘the final blow’. After the other half of an eternity, there was no final blow. I turned off the radio playing Classic FM, turned the ignition off, grabbed the car key and my handbag on the floor and opened the door from the passenger side to avoid the faster lane on my right. I was as calm and as peaceful this morning.

I have now learned that it is always there, Paris – the calm, the peace, the joy. It’s only a matter of cultivating and maintaining it at every moment, even when it’s supposed to be a challenging moment. And that, my dear, is the secret of life – only joking; there’s no secret in life if you’re truly living it. Everything is out in the open when your heart is open, and my constant learning is, I guess, how to keep my heart open, moment by moment.

Anyway, enough about me – only joking; it’s never enough, Paris! When it’s truly about me, it’s truly about you too, but my new best friend Peter shooed me out of his way as soon as I entered the barge, to do this podcast, after complimenting how good I still looked in this weather, drenched, and telling me that he had turned the heating on in my room and that he was going to deliver his magical ginger, honey and lime drink in a bit.

I am so spoiled, Paris! I am free and I am loved! My cold, which I caught from walking alone in the Parisian evening rain a bit too indulgently, has subsided quite considerably. I feel ready, Paris, for anything. And I will remember this readiness in me when I encounter moments that make me feel otherwise. Come what may, I’ve got my return ticket to you already! See you in a few days!

londres, le 15 février 2026

je t’embrasse !

d.o.