As you’re reading this I am Chicago, visiting the eldest in her new digs at the University of Chicago. But last week was a rare, gloriously sunny day in Paris, so I decided to do the French thing and I went on strike. I was protesting the indoors and refused to go in any building until the sun had set. But it didn’t start out that way.

It started with me heading to the ‘burbs to hear a talk with the author of “Inside Apple”. I don’t really know the outskirts of Paris, so I was relying on my iPhone which got me helplessly lost. How ironic is that??, My maps app got me lost, so I missed a lecture on Apple!!!  Following the map had taken me through some creepy underpasses near the periph’ so going back I decided I’d walk towards the center of town and cross over ‘somewhere else’. A set of big, wide cement staircases led between some office buildings towards the center of town.

I started climbing up through this wide open space when I surprised 2 men in their city worker uniforms who were clearly NOT working for the city at that moment. They were working on each other. One guy was on his knees, the other had his pants wide open. I didn’t really want to see more so I sped on up, only to find myself in the middle of an isolated forest. It was a dead end.

I headed back down, coughing loudly and stomping my feet and somewhat relieved to see one of the guys coming back up the stairs towards me. But kind of freaked out, too. Booking back down, I was thrilled when I reached the creepy underpasses and even happier when I got to the nice, open bridge that crosses the périphérique. Bright sunshin with barges and rowing teams passing below, things were looking brighter when I heard the clash of metal and screeching brakes and turned just in time to see a car come careenin directly towards me, on the sidewalk, stopping just 6 cm from my knee cap!!

I was having a bad day, and it was only 11am. Since most fatal accidents happen within the home, I decided to grab my laptop and head next door to the corner café where I could enjoy the UVs and prevent anymore mischief from coming my way.