Plus Rien Ne Vous Retient

"Nothing is holding you back." The message of a Metro advertisement for a website for bargain "vacances." (More on ads in a future post.)

The sentiment: Carefree with a touch of dread. It's true that nothing *might* hold me back, either in my work or by just confirming that I have no personal interests. I'm not the sort of person who gave up other pursuits to be a lawyer. (I just like being a lawyer.) If I ever imagined having a lot of free time, there wasn't *something* particular that I imagined filling that with. Like Peter Gibbons, I guess I just thought I would do nothing.

It is possible to sink into the nothing. The other day my only departure from the apartment was to get a chicken for dinner, after which I sang, "Voulez vous poulet avec moi ce soir?"

But there also a more buoyant side. Today: rode the Metro, got my LA Story-style message, secured husband's "lost" box of books, scored coffee fresh-ground for French press (which one Parisian said n'existe pas), bought laptop battery for blogging and Rosetta-Stoning, obtained various delightful edibles and wearables and drank in others with my eyes, most achieved while dodging through tourists in the 1er arrondisement, including a purposeful stroll through Tuileries to the Apple Store at the Louvre .

So I'll take "Plus Rien Ne Vous Retient" as carefree. It was about vacations after all. But I'll hold on to the touch of dread, just to keep things interesting.