So... Staying in Paris for a week, that was a little weird : Upon arrival, I couldn't help notice some disorganization at the airport, but that was to be expected. The emotion was palpable, but the fea was invisible. Yet, people insisted it was all over.
I spent most of my days in the editorial room of a magazine I write for, and it was a non-stop fest of jokes, many bad ones about the terror attacks. A woman there had to leave as she thought this was too unsensitive, but that was the way of coping of the majority - almost everyone agreed that the terrorist were dumb brainwashed loosers who could have done much more damage if slightly smarter (!!!). This was the very last days of writing and polishing the upcoming issue, and the general consensus on monday was that this might very well the best issue ever of the magazine in its 18 years of existence, which made it even weirder. I guess everyone put more heart in it and everyone got more ambitious. I was visiting mainly for the wedding of a friend and played records at the party that followed the ceremony. When I went home around 6 in hte morning on friday night, the streets were deserted. I took a bike almost everynight through the city, and even though by day you couldn't really feel the tension, the empty streets of the night told it all. Yet, everyone was quite energic, people were quite confident as the police worked extremly well and fast to track down the cell, even if we know that terrorist plans are uncovered avery other week in Paris. I had a meeting at hte Universal offices for stuff related to my music production, and the entrance of the offices had been turned into a memorial for hteir three employees killed in the attacks, but the atmosphere wasn't too gloomy. If the politics will soon start too fight each other, the people have grown much closer, a cab driver confirmed it to me as he described his clientelle more chatty than ever, in a good way. People were more keen to initiate contact and interaction everywhere, in very friendly ways and for o ohter reason than proximity. I left yesterday quite happy with what I saw and heard : lots of love, more curiosity, and less and less patience for any sort of religious hold on society. Paris is probably with New York the most mixed city in the world regarding color, age and social status (much more so than London!). And in the western world, they both stood the most dramatic attacks of recent age. I guess cities like Paris and maybe New York are waiting for the rest of the world to share the burden of being at the forefront of mixity, the best weapon against religious terrorism, contrary of what people like Trump would have people think...