destinations
So I consoled myself with the sky, the clouds, the colors of the sunsets over the Pont des Arts, a bridge
I used to cross for my studies, between the Ecole du Louvre and the Institut de France, beyond the
Luxembourg Gardens and the Observatory Fountain.
Fortunately, that weekend during tea at an Arlesian friend’s place where I had taken refuge, I met
by chance the woman who was to become my wife—a true Parisian from Montmartre, with distant
Bulgarian and Alsatian origins who was raised in Montmartre in a family of artists and actors. It
was she who gave me the “keys,” introducing me to tea rooms, book stores and cafés that have since
vanished, but in those days were very popular with people like us. Of course, London and New York,
apr + may 2009
Venice and Barcelona were, with the South, our favorite places of escape. But I learned to escape in
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