Street Art

Human beings are creatures of habit. We drive the same route to and from work, day after day, week after week. We frequent the same restaurants, order our favorite dish from the menu, in fact we are on auto-pilot much of our lives. I am no different - each day I walk the same path to the boulangerie and I buy the same thing: "un pain au chocolat et une demi baguette s'il vous plait"! Every once in a while we rebel against ourselves, and in a fit of picqué decide to take Main Street to the fork in the road instead of Lincoln Heights directly to the autoroute. It was on one of these days that I happened upon a magical place - a place that exsisted right under my nose yet remained hidden, like the world beyond the rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland. Feeling rebellious, my blood was up and I zigged instead of zagged - not once but twice! (Did I mention my blood was up?) On the second zag I was stopped short by a "sentier", a gaily painted totem indicating this was no ordinary rue, this was a place where thinking is a little out of the box. A place where artists are free to decorate their neighbors homes with splashes of colour, a place that possessed a magical ambiance, an unexpected oasis in the suburbs. As I continued, I noticed tableaus of flowers, butterflies, and ladybugs attached to fences willy-nilly, as if the Easter Bunny had attacked the neighborhood covertly one night with a paintbrush. The lamposts were beautifully decorated, there were expressions of love on a cement foundation ( P + C ), a garbage bin even joined the party! As did Alice, I encountered a freakishly large and rather smug cat, purring contentedly at his guardpost near the opposite entrance - my journey was over in the blink of an eye. With one quick zig, I was back in the "real world". This happy little place is my new habitude as I take my daily trip to the bakery for my pain au chocolat. I wonder what other little gems lie hidden right under my nose? I guess I'll never know unless I zig!