coincidence

Last Monday I went to Paris for an interview. Of course, this being France, there was a strike on the suburban train line that I needed to use to get to my interview, so I ended up taking a few metros and a cab. On one metro trip, I noticed two people sitting across from me: directly across was a older man who was wearing a ball cap and two seats over was a young woman wearing jeans and some Bensimon shoes. I noticed the man because he seemed to be staring at me, but I later figured that he was just staring in my general direction, and I noticed the woman because the space between her nose and her upper lip was much larger than normal.

I continued on towards my interview, took a cab from La Défense and arrived with two minutes to spare. The interview itself wasn't too interesting; the office was in a hovel of a building and they were clearly looking for someone who had a good knowledge of the classical music touring network in France (which I don't!). They also were suggesting that they wouldn't have any time to train a new person and that there were many urgent things that needed doing. In short, I was not the girl for the job and that's ok.

I left the interview and figured out how to take the bus to La Défense. Once there, I hopped on the metro and a few stations later, I saw the young woman who I had seen earlier that day get on the metro. She got on my car through the door nearest me. I thought that was interesting. I then transferred to another metro and then a couple of stations later, the man with the ball cap got on my car through the door nearest me. It got me thinking about coincidences that seem too impossible. Of all the millions of people living in Paris who take the metro, I bumped into the same two people twice in the same day on two different trains. Both times they entered the car I was in through the door closest to me. What are the odds?

I had a few hours to kill before heading home, so I went to the Galéries Lafayette (a large department store) and saw their immense Christmas tree in the centre of the store.  Wow!
(photo from this website. )