Au Revoir

Leaving Paris is bittersweet. The past few days have felt so surreal,  gradually untangling ourselves
emotionally from this place, from the people, from our friends, from the places
that have become so familiar to us. People have asked us how we feel to be
going home, and I am yet to come up with a decent response that doesn't border
on psychotic or bipolar. Part of me is so happy to be returning to the life we
have at home, but the other part can't believe that everything we love about
this place will be so far from our reach.

At the final frog fight last night (photos to come), we were reminded by a dear friend of ours
that acquaintances are easy to make, but good friends are hard to find. We have found so many
good friends here, people we have been blessed to know, people who freel like family to us now.
To leave them is heartbreaking, but also exciting to know we are returning to Australia with such a
network of love across the globe, so many promises to visit and "if you are ever in (insert home
town here) then you will always have a place to stay!" offers, which go beyond just the offering
of a couch to sleep on, but extend to a global friendship that is borderless and timeless. I really
hope that the little group of coffee geeks made up mostly of anglophones that we have nestled
into will stay with us for life.

Aside from leaving these relationships, we are leaving a place that feels like
home, with all of the little comforts that come with that. The knowledge ghat on
Sunday mornings the line for the boulangerie will be at least 20 people long,
the buskers who frequent the same places playing the same songs, the homeless
man on our metro station who sleeps sitting up in his chair, the old lady who
has probably lived on our street all her life with her disheveled wig and huge
fur coat, who is seen everyday with a different stranger she has asked to help
her up the stairs, the metro adds that are always cleverly vandalized by
anarchistic socialist French people intent on destroying global capitalism, boulangers who smile
at you in the street, people who don't smile ever, etc etc.

Standing on the Eiffel Tower tonight overlooking the city, I felt like I had to almost grieve the
loss of a dear friend, not because any one has or is dying, but because I have fallen so in love with
 this place that to leave is such a loss to my heart. The lovely thing about Paris is, that it will always be Paris,
and it will always be right here, within reach.