A Time to Dance

Another post with a misnomer title. This one comes from Paris. Enjoy.

On the day I arrived in Paris I decided to hit up the Eiffel Tower as my first sight in town. I went there in the early afternoon and spent a few hours on and around the tower. While that could be a whole story unto itself, it is not today's story. Instead, today's story occurs after I had come down from the tower. By the time I descended the stairs back to ground level, then sun was setting and the Eiffel Tower's lights had turned on. I spent some time getting photos of the tower and then slowly walked through a park that extends (a bit over a mile) from the Eiffel Tower to the French military academy, taking some more photos as I went. When I arrived near the academy it was night and I came across a large group of people who appeared to have had a few drinks. I don't know who they were; many appeared to be other tourists, others looked like they might be students. They were doing group games, and when I got close to them they were doing some variant of Simon Says, with ten or so people in the center, leading, and everyone else in a large ring around them, following. The people in the center would chant and do a gesture, and then the people in the ring repeated it back to them. After this the people in the center did the same thing, but added another gesture to the routine, and the cycle continues. I watched for a short while, and then pulled out my camera and began recording. No, I did not join them (how would I film them otherwise?). After the video finishes the group moved on to wherever their roving party took them. These are moments I refer to as "evanescent encounters," and this certainly would not be the last one on this trip.

Below you will find a link to the video I took, which sadly is only the last minute of the whole thing. I tried to upload the video directly to this post, but for some reason Blogger does not like it. Instead, you'll get to check out my modest Youtube channel. I am actually thinking I might upload more videos from Europe to the channel and create a playlist. If so, I will create a post to inform you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePXAk8fZ3Es&feature=youtu.be