Chance Encounters

Chance Encounters
As I said before, having the freedom of the Velib allowed me to be out in the fresh Parisian air. Since I was out in the air and biking from place to place I ended up being in much more contact with everyday Parisians while they went through their daily routines. They were jogging on the streets, having a cigarette outside their offices or cafes (still amazing that Paris is non-smoking!), having a lunch break from work, shopping or just commuting from place to place.
I'm not sure why, maybe it was the perfect Spring temperatures that brought it out, but almost everywhere I went I could smell the most amazing women's colognes and perfumes. As I would be walking or "Velibing", wafts of amazing scents of all sorts would find their way to me... and it was sublime. There is nothing in the world like the ultimately feminine smell of women. The right scent can turn an average woman into an alluring temptress.
There was a predominant smell with most of these women's perfumes. They were blatantly and unabashedly floral. Now, usually I really do not like floral fragrances that are strong. They usually remind me of "that" relative who wore one of those overly rose, violets or some other flower scent that would turn my stomache. But these were somehow different. These were the kinds of scents that make men weak at the knees and brought to mind images of a female pied piper with hundreds of men following her down the streets of Paris...
Being the curious guy that I am I asked some of these women(3 to be exact!) what scent they were wearing and to my surprise the women were not offended by my question, but amazingly helpful. Two out of the three (the other one I couldn't make out in French!) said Chance by Chanel. Of course, Chanel........
I immediately went to Galleries Lafayette to see if that was indeed the frangrance and it was! In fact, I even thought about getting it to remind me of that time in Paris or even get it for a friend to wear, but honestly I wanted to keep those moments special. That scent help to create these near perfect momentary slices of Parisian life which can't be recreated.
Chance definitely isn't for everyone, (in fact, I couldn't imagine any of my friends wearing it) but next time you see it, you may want to take a chance on Chance by Chanel and imagine yourself the Pied Piper with hundreds of French cuites following you ;)