The bulk of this trip was less eventful and much more meditative, maybe a little too meditative for my tastes. Don’t get me wrong - I felt right at home - but I was looking for more, um, connections to Orléans’ men of color. And at 32€ for each roundtrip ticket, it wasn’t feasible to head to Paris with any frequency. So I looked at a lot of French television. I went to La Mediathèque for WiFi when the trickle available from the apartment was too sporadic and unreliable. And I shopped at Carrefour almost every day.
Maybe I was bored. Maybe I was lonely. Maybe it was the selection. Maybe it was that Tahitian security guard. Yeah, I think it was him. During the day, after overdosing on TV, I’d go to Carrefour to, at the very least, get baguette for the next day. It was always good to get out and be around people, to listen to them speak (instead of listening to Madonna’s addictive Confessions On A Dance Floor on my iPod).
Orléans, like many cities, is especially beautiful at night.
Before he returned to New York, Philippe and I did visit Paris together again: one time to party down at BBB @ Folies Pigalle and again to hang out with that Parisian gentleman (and fellow Flickrer) Essomba. Esso treated us to a lovely evening out at Le Paradis du Fruit and took some great photos. I also thought about going to Amsterdam to go see my girl Sandra St. Victor but she actually lives about an hour away from Amsterdam. The trip was quickly coming to a end; soon I would be saying “Au Revoir” to Orléans … well, maybe not “Au Revoir” but “À Bientôt” …
Oh God — these pictures are beautiful, Donald.