Paris: Stumbling into serenity: The secret garden of Saint-Serge

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The other day I was walking through the edgy, regenerated Villette area of Paris, and on one of its busy streets, I stumbled upon something that felt like a gap in time.

I went through an unassuming gate and walked down a narrow, semi-private alley. Just like that, I was out of the noisy present and inside a hidden, completely quiet garden. It turned out to belong to the Saint-Serge de Radonège Russian Orthodox Church.

 

Photo: SortirAParis

The whole scene looked like something out of an old nineteenth-century novel. Orthodox priests with long beards and flowing black robes moved slowly among the flowerbeds, and a group of elderly people sat on rickety chairs, chatting in a mix of Russian and French. The sudden shift from the bustling street to this completely quiet sanctuary was so strange that I almost felt out of place with a smartphone in my hand.

In fact, I kept my mobile firmly in my pocket. For once, it felt a bit wrong to pull it out just to take the usual snapshots I always do whenever I walk around a city.

An elderly woman came up to me and offered a glass of what turned out to be homemade kvass. I accepted the drink, and to be honest, I found it much better than the trendy kombucha they sell in the health food stores nearby. Sitting there, I started thinking about our constant, almost obsessive rush after everything that is new. I could easily have walked right past that gate if my eyes had been glued to my mobile screen, which made me wonder how many of these strange little places we blindly miss every single day.

Entering this old garden, where time seems to move at a completely different pace, made me realize something. Drinking a glass of fermented rye bread on a rickety chair actually did more for my head than any of the mindfulness apps I usually feel pressured to use. 

It is probably a good reminder that the best way to find a bit of peace is not to optimize your mind with technology, but to simply step off the main street and look around.



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