metro happenings - establishing contact

( a rarity - a picture of me on the metro, taken on the first day back from vacation )

When I started this blog, it was all about things I saw and people I came across on the metro. It has slowly evolved according to my whims and wishes. Recently I thought it would be fun to go back to the starting line and share tid bits of what happens between point A and point B on most days, because while the metro no longer seems foreign and fun, believe me, it has not yet ceased to amaze me what things you can see down there. 
Despite the heat, August is one of the best times to commute to work – the trains are spotted with the few Parisians left in town. A few mornings ago, in an act of summer laze, I took the long way to work underground, choosing to switch trains at Opera rather than walking the rest of the way from Palais Royal.

On my way through the corridors, a woman walked up to me and asked if I could kindly point out the Opera station on a map. I must have looked at her in some sort of bewilderment, given the fact that we were at Opera, at which point she explained that she was writing a book and her reaching out to me was part of her research. I wish I could have asked her what her book was about but she disappeared rather quickly after I answered her question. I think in the moment, I must have looked down at my bag to make sure she wasn’t pick pocketing me, which became very clear very quickly that she wasn’t. And now, I wonder what she will write about me in her book.
Sometimes I wish I could be a fly on the wall and observe situations like these and this little event has had me wondering about the different reactions the woman must get when she asks people that question on the metro. I’ve also been wondering if this isn’t a sign that maybe I should be out there meeting people, “establishing contact” and finally writing that book of mine …