Dream Trip 2009

Great Travel Moment

One of the very best parts of travel is coming upon a completely delightful and unplanned surprise. It was our first day in Paris and my husband and I were walking around trying to keep each other awake for a few more hours so we could get on local time. Down the street from our hotel in the Marais, we came upon a seemingly spontaneous concert by an itinerant band of young people drawing a crowd as the sun went down. It was chilly, but as locals hurried home from work, from the subway, going wherever they were on this evening, everyone stopped to listen to the music. No matter that they seemed to only have one song in their repertoire, upon which they played endless variations; no matter that, as my husband suggested, they may have escaped from a local asylum; no matter that eventually the gendarmes showed up and made everone disperse; for a magical half hour we were all enchanted with this charming spectacle. And that is why we all travel, n'est-ce pas?