Is this the right place?

How do you know when you are in the right place? In a city that spirals out like a snail shell, has a bendy river that cuts through the middle, and has many circular plazas with 5+ roads rotating out...well, it's easy to get lost or turned around. I don't usually get lost very easily, but I am use to Portland, where the streets run generally in a square grid, the names are roughly alphabetical, and the river is downhill. None of these things are true of where we live in Paris. The first few days I came out of the metro and headed in exactly the wrong directions, much to my embarrassment. And this does not seem to be just a foreigner problem. On Sunday morning I was taking Hiro out, searching for Saint Severin, the oldest church in the latin quater (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-S%C3%A9verin,_Paris). Nat drew me a map, I took the metro and followed the map exactly. No ancient gothic church. I tried the opposite direction, asked several locals, of all different ages. They all sent me in different directions. The last one looked at Nat's map and pointed down the street. My eyes trailed after her as she walked away from where she pointed, and I say a sign above her head that said Église Saint-Séverin. Parisians don't know where they are either.

This week, I received a sweet serendipity, a confirmation that we are in the right place right now. It's been a long week for Paris...the illness really took it out of me, and then Judah got a fever, and we've had a couple of days of downpour and I just may be getting a little cabin fever in 384 sq feet...
Mommy was inpatient, to put it kindly.
Then I get a facebook....my dear friend who was my closest companion when I studied abroad in Spain, one who lives in Juno Alaska, I don't see often, but she knows me...she's in Paris!
Randomly, she's in Paris for a wedding of a friend of a friend. She's had a lot of changes in her life and we have a lot to catch up on. I adore this girl and right now, I need her. She suggests Saint Severin, Hiro and I meet her and her friend. The church (which I may have never gone to alone) has a gentle and genuine priest who seems to sincerely care for his patrons and want to connect in a real way. He blesses Hiro and dotes on him in French. Hiro doesn't understand the French service, but he reverently listens and watching everything that is happening. Afterwards he tells me he was praying in his head the whole time. The stain glass is breathtaking, echoing stories I have known my whole life, beauty that whispers of something more...more...

Although I am not Catholic and I don't speak French, the service was a blessing to me. I am thankful. Afterwards my friend Amy and her/my new friend Liz walked home, picking up fresh bread and pastries from Erik Kayser Boulangerie. We caught up over a multi-course several hour meal with at our apartment while the rain beats down outside. Judah had a fever still, so I was thankful that Liz was a nurse. Afterwards, the skies cleared and I bundled up Kai and Liz, Amy and I explored the Latin Quater.

We saw the courtyard garden of the Grand Mosque of Paris (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Mosque) -which is behind my apartment. We saw La Sorbonne (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Paris) and the Pantheon (http://www.pantheonparis.com/), the lit Eiffel tower in the distance, and the outside of the Jardin Du Luxembourg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jardin_du_Luxembourg). We ended up walking along the Seine and seeing a bridge covered with love locks and more stunning medieval, Renaissance, and classical architecture. We found Shakespeare and Company a fabulous bookstore that reminded me of  Powell's in Portland...only cozier and more European (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespeare_and_Company_(bookstore) http://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/index.php?categories=113:1).
We ended our evening in a bistro, Kai asleep under my coat, my first childless meal in Paris. We ate French onion soup and bourbon creme brulee. It was exactly what I needed: a relaxing day wardering around with a friend, a tiny break from from the daily rituals of motherhood that do not change, despite my location.   I am exactly where I need to me.

The next day, with Judah fully recovered from the fever, we all met again, this time all five of us and the two of them. It was a splendidly sunny day and we met at Place du Chatelet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Place_du_Ch%C3%A2telet) wandering around the Chatelet area for a while and dining at a maison du thé before heading up to Sacre-Coeur (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacr%C3%A9-C%C5%93ur,_Paris). It was a lovely day up on the hill. The area around Sacre Coeur feels like a charming cobblestone village. There are artist around the back of the basilica -good artist - painting and selling their wares. The views are the very best in the city, outside the church was the best street performer I had ever seen...actually scaling a 20 foot high lamppost  while juggling a soccer ball on his feet. And the church itself...

Words are going to fail here. Stunning, prayerful, powerful and reverent. A lot would be lost if I didn't have the loving personal relational church and God that I experience on a regular basis. But in the context of my experience, the history and beauty of Sacre Coeur touched me. Everything from the gypsy begging out front to the soaring arches, the vibrant stain-glass, the magnitude of the mosaic depicting all nations and saints coming to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Surreal.

In the evening I got a complete girls night out...we went to a jazz club that actually had a cave in the basement where an exceptional live band played while whirling Parisians 20-60 somethings lindy-hopped and jitterbugged the night away.

My needs were met and exceded. I said good bye to Amy, both of us at crossroads in life, feeling refreshed and cared for. Sojourners, we could have carried on alone, but we didn't. We met and I hope she feels encouraged about her path as well. I may not see her for another year or two, but she played a very important role for me this week. She let me know, I am in exactly the right place.