A Snowy Night in Paris – Bedtime Story Text

It’s time for a new sleep story tonight. We travel to one of the greatest cities on planet Earth, Paris, and we meet some people there who work during the night when the rest of us are asleep.

The first Parisian we meet this evening is Jean-Pierre, the baker, who owns a little boulangerie just around the corner from the Rodin Museum in the seventh arrondissement. Jean-Pierre’s boulangerie has been in the family for a very, very long time. He is one of a long line of bakers who have lived in this house above this little boulangerie, and as Paris sleeps, Jean-Pierre awakes six nights a week.

Jean-Pierre leaves his sleeping wife and gets up in the dead of the night to make pastries and bread for the residents of the City of Lights. He doesn’t find it difficult; it’s part of life, part of his natural rhythm. As he walks into the bathroom, the lights in the house are still off. He looks out through the window at the sleeping city, and the stars shine brightly down upon Paris. It is wintertime, and the white snow that sits on the ground below glistens in the starlight.

Jean-Pierre loves this time of the day. It feels like a whole other world. As he stands in the darkness, his bare feet touching the warm wooden floor, he feels grounded. He takes some deep breaths in and out, in and out, in and out. It feels warm inside as he looks out on the cold night. He feels cozy.

He dresses, brushes his teeth, and descends down into the little boulangerie. His first job is to fire up the oven. He likes them and every day without fail, enjoys the crackling of the comforting sound of the wood burning. He looks around the kitchen, pretty much unchanged in over 100 years. Yes, he thinks of his father and mother, long gone now, and the joy and life that they experienced together on this hallowed place.

He takes out his pastry, some of it prepared the night before, and he starts to roll, adding butter as he does this rolling motion he has done 100 million times before. His arms are stronger because of it, and there is something he loves about it – the process, the craftsmanship, the care, and attention to detail that only someone who really cares about what they do can display. As he rolls, he likes to think of it as his morning meditation. It is, in a way, a way of connecting to something higher. He loses himself in it, and it isn’t long before Jean-Pierre has created lots and lots of little triangles that will be rolled up and made into croissant.

As Jean-Pierre looks upon his work, over in the Louvre museum, Marie-Louise, a security guard, is in the middle of her shift. She is sitting behind her desk, looking at a group of television screens showing her views throughout the museum. She decides to walk through the empty halls; in fact, it’s one of her favorite things to do.

Marie-Louise is an art student and cleverly got a job at the Louvre so that she can enjoy all of the great masterpieces all on her own. She walks along the great empty halls of this magnificent great and empty building, and she feels, in a way, not unlike Jean-Pierre, that the world is hers at this time of night. Sometimes she likes to pretend that the paintings are hers too.

This building was originally built as a royal residence, and it took 200 years to build. As Marie Louise worked through it, she looked up at everything around, not just the paintings. The building itself was intricate, and the craftsmanship was astonishing. Eventually, she arrived at her favorite room, and yes, you guessed it – it’s the room where the Mona Lisa is by Leonardo da Vinci. This painting, a masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance, is the best-known, most-visited, most-written-about, most-sung-about work of art in the world. It’s believed that da Vinci worked on the painting for many years in the early 1500s. Eventually, he brought it to France, and it came into the hands of François Premier, King Francis the first of France.

It has been in the Louvre for over 200 years, and of course, normally, it is difficult to look at it. There are so many people standing in front of it. But not tonight, not for Marie Louise. Most nights that Marie Louise works, she is granted a private audience with the world’s most famous painting. As a little girl, she had a poster of the painting in her room, and in some ways, she could not believe that she gets to see this painting in the flesh on her own every night. And she stands close to the great painting, looking at the delicate features of this mysterious woman.

No one knows exactly who the Mona Lisa is or was. She is one of humanity’s great mysteries, a mystery that will more than likely remain unanswered. And she looks at the brushstrokes, and she imagines the hand of the great man da Vinci working tirelessly and patiently on this exquisite work. And she tries to imagine where he would have painted it, in his studio in Florence, or outside in the country, maybe both. In some strange way, she feels connected to da Vinci. She thinks that we as humans are all connected, and that in itself is beautiful. It is thought that art is generated by looking at ours, and that’s why Marie Louise loves art. She feels tired now, sleepy in fact, and she decides to keep working through the great museum.

While Marie Louise walks around the roof outside, driving slowly through the snow, is Laurence, a taxi driver. He enjoys working these hours when there’s no traffic on the streets of Paris. He, like Marie Louise and Jean-Pierre, enjoys the warm feeling just for a few hours that the world is here, and he’s alone. He passes the Louvre and looks at the building and the great glass pyramid outside.

The thought strikes him that he has never been inside, despite growing up in Paris. He drives along the great southern river for a moment to feel the cool air of the night and to hear the calming flow of the river outside. Eventually, he arrives at the Eiffel Tower. He has a ritual every night that when he passes this world-famous icon, he parks the car, gets out, and looks up at what was a very controversial monument when it was first constructed. And he loves this tower, and he looks at it, taking in its enormity and grandeur.

And every night, the thought strikes him that he is lucky to live in this place. He allows himself to feel gratitude for the life he leads, for the place he lives in, for the people he loves, and who love him in return. He knows that so many people around the world would love to see the Eiffel Tower just once in their life. The wrong sees it every day, and that privilege is not lost on him. And it’s cold outside, and so, no wrong gets back in the car and continues his nighttime drive through Paris.

He has a coop to do a pick up at the Ritz. Someone is going to the airport Charles de Gaulle. LeBron begins his journey towards Charles de Gaulle with a businessman in the back. Roxanne, an air stewardess, is aboard an Air France A380 aircraft flying in from Los Angeles with nearly 06115 passengers on board. Roxanne has worked a long shift and she is very tired. It seems to her that nearly 06115 passengers are on board.

First, she checks on the people in first class, lying out horizontally. Roxanne is preparing for landing in the next few minutes. She has worked hard tonight aboard this great metal bird of the skies. It is never lost on Roxanne just what a privilege it is to fly around the world. Yesterday she was in Los Angeles, the city of angels. Later tonight she will be in Paris, her home, this city of lights.

As she announces to the sleeping passengers that soon they will land, she thinks how amazing it is that all of these people and all of their luggage, and this great machine, can fly high above in the sky to travel halfway around our beautiful home Earth. The source of all structure, but nothing exceptional, like this happens with humans working together. Humanity working together is when we are at our best!

Roxanne prepares the sleeping passengers for landing, and the pilots prepare the great plane to land. As the plane touches down in Charles de Gaulle, the passengers disembark. Jean-Pierre takes out a beautiful tray of course. So I smell would laughing through the streets of Paris in the night is slowly blending in today, and soon, Jean-Pierre welcomes his first customer.

Roxanne walks into the boulangerie and buys herself a croissant. She greets Jean-Pierre with a smile, and Jean-Pierre greets Roxanne with familiarity. These two know each other well. Soon, Roxanne is walking home eating a croissant, and Marie Louise pops into the boulangerie and buys a pan au chocolat. Jean-Pierre is always happy to see Marie Louise.

Then, Marie Louise happily heads to her little apartment at Republic, and it isn’t long before Enzo’s car outside the boulangerie comes in and buys himself a baguette before getting in his car and driving out of the city to his home in the Parisian suburbs.

Now Jean-Pierre’s wife Bridget comes downstairs and greets her husband with a warm embrace. Jean-Pierre kisses his wife on the cheek and goes up stairs. He changes, and gets into bed. For a well earned sleep. He stretches out in his bed and feels so very tired. As Jean-Pierre is closing his eyes, so is Roxanne. She is in her cozy little room feeling safe and ready for sleep. Laurence has said hello to his children and wife. And now he is under a warm blanket, his head under the pillow in his very comfortable bed. About to have a very well earned sleep.

Meanwhile, Marie Louise is already in a deep sleep. Dreaming of the Mona Lisa and Davinci’s Florence. Soon all of our friends who we have followed tonight, are sleeping deeply. Now it’s time for you to sink into a peaceful and restful sleep. Sleep Well.