I have had a lifelong fascination with the relationship of Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, who I thought influenced my relationships with her boldness and courage and innovation and devotion and intensity. I am forever grateful for my friend from University days in Melbourne, LSF, for introducing me to Simone de Beauvoir and I remember receiving the book The Prime of Life as a gift.
In this part of Paris, one finds two famous cafés associated with these legendary lovers. I think this one was their favourite .
i had preferred the quieter Cafe de FLore and this time, i was able to procure a corner table in absolute privacy for one, and enjoyed the coffee. With Paris open only to Europeans and North Americans, the selfie seeking crowds were absent and the line was not long to get in.
I was feeling especially good, it was somewhere near here, on my visit here during my Anthropology student days that I bought a book on Medical Anthropology by the Psychiatrist, Tobie Nathan?
The church on the left felt familiar but there were some art work hung on the grill of the walls. I walked close and peered and my joy was bounding.. quotes from writers that have brought great joy in my life. Exupery, Pessoa ...
In between the words of better known writers, there were some originals of the artist himself. This particular one reminded me of an admonishment I received from the Cardiologist Dr Pinkus in Melbourne where I was a Junior Actor.. If you stand out like a sore thumb, you disturb other peoples peace..
I looked around for the creator of such simple pleasures and i did not to look far. By the road side, cocooned in his own shyness was the artist.. a long term resident of Paris but originally from India, Monsieur Yaseen Khan.. I expressed my thanks to him but did not engage in any conversation and moved along propelled by the buoyancy of this wonderful feeling..
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