The Hungry Birds of Notre Dame
When we saw Peter stealthily pocketing small loaves of bread from a basket served to us while having lunch at a nearby café after touring the
Eiffel Tower, we were amused.
"For supper?" we asked cheekily.
"No. For my cousins." he replied deadpan.
Although baffled, we did not for a moment believe that he could be hungry. If Paris could be made up of a certain food type, I am sure it would be baguettes and croissants. I have never seen a country consume as much bread as the Parisians or maybe I've been to too few places. We were served baguettes and croissants for breakfast at the Vintage Hostel which we resided, then it was baguettes for lunch and baguettes for dinner everywhere else we dined. The rest of them thought I was joking when I said that it is customary to use baguettes to wipe the plates clean of pasta sauce. And of course you eat them flavoured baguettes.
We proceeded to
Cathédrale Notre Dame de Paris after lunch and right in front of the cathédrale were bushels of hungry birds.
Can you see them birds?We saw a wondrous sight. An Algerian girl was standing on a bench beside the bushel and she held out bread crumbs with her hands. As we peered at her, she looked like a vision with birds swarming around her outstretched hands, pecking excitedly. I could have sworn that she had a fluttering halo of birds under the very bright, indiscernible sun. It is too bad I did not think of taking a picture of her then because our friend, Peter, unloaded his haversack of purloined baguettes, broke them into small pieces and did the same.
Oh my god. Then he looked like a vision.
"These are my cousins that I was talking about." he explained.
It was one hungry bird at first ...
Then there were two ...There were times when there were five to six birds hovering around his hands. Tourists were now crowding around us, snapping shots furiously. Even I got over my initial fear of being pecked and gave it a go. I managed to feed a few hungry birds but was not as popular a choice for the birds as Peter or Chris for that matter. I reasoned that my fancy fingernails of gold and black zebra prints spelt danger to the birds. Come on, I was holding
bigger pieces of bread ...
We must have played saints to the birds for at least half an hour and also offered the purloined baguettes to other tourists who asked us for some.
Labels: Birds, Cathédrale Notre Dame de Paris, Paris, Travel, Wanderlust
Movie Review: Before Sunset
It's a little late for this since the film came out in 2004 but this is my second time watching it and I still feel the value in writing about the emotions it evoked in me the way not many films did with dialogue.
I've never watched "
Before Sunset" before its prequel in a theatre years ago but the movie drew in enough references to keep first time audience like me in touch with what was going on and so really, there is no need for making intelligent guesses. I remembered walking out of the theatre suitably pensive and feeling incredible that 100 minutes of intensive speech between the two actors had not rendered the film boring by any means but then again, I have always been a literature type of student hence the lack of action and drama do not scare me anymore than a bad storyline and deplorable acting.
Perhaps it's my love for the city that also tilted me in its favour - of the characters strolling down the streets of Paris, into the
Le Pure Cafe, onto the garden trail followed by a ride in the Canauramax bateau-mouche down the Seine river and getting off at the Quai Henri Quartre. With such a beautiful backdrop, an arresting storyline, wonderful chemistry between the couple, this film had become impossible not to love.
There were many private moments so privy to the couple that you became both the intruder and the voyeur. There might be the occasional thought that you should leave them to their devices but as it is, you are unable to tear your eyes away and would loathe to let go. And so you trailed behind, fully absorbed into the lives of these two individuals who had lost the chance to explore what could have been nine years ago and emerged again with different circumstances but feelings no less strong.
And I thought the open-ended ending was wildly appropriate. I often find myself hating books/films that do not have a conclusion (see if there is a starting point, then there must be a finishing else it would be a race that bears no fruit. I know I am the eternal cynic and I know that most people would argue that the beauty is in the process but oh well ... it's good to know when to start and when to stop).
So what would you do if you are cast in the shoes of Jesse and Celine, with new responsibilities that they must account for yet coupled with a human instinct to be selfish for a Love that might only drop in their laps once in a lifetime?
Labels: Before Sunset, Films, France, Julie Delpy, Movies, Paris, Reviews
