The front
entrance of the Grand Temple de Lyon is located on Quai Victor Augagneur – a long
& lovely street that runs along the Rhône from Pont Lafayette to Pont de la
Guillotière. Around back on the much quieter Cours de la Liberté are the
clergy's residential quarters. It was there that I – the atheist in the
church's attic – would enter through a large wooden door and ascend a winding
staircase to my living quarters. This
ascent was a daily & dreaded demonstration of the thermodynamic principle
that hot air rises, with cool street level air giving way to a reality-altering
curtain of heat. Outside, activity
in the neighborhood – the city's 3rd arrondissement – mirrored this principle
of verticality. Calm, grey mornings that hosted more pigeons than people
in little Square Jussieu would rise up into evenings that drew throngs to drink
in riverbank bars under molten copper sunsets – a ritual of altitude in
reverse, tracked through a fever gaze.
Son rêve d’Hollywood
et d’un rôle de princesse scandinave rescapée des flots lui revint brusquement
en tête au moment d’entrer dans le passage bruissant, qui l’avala.
