Deafening silence in his beloved city
By John Burton
It was a terrible ending to their French vacation for Mayor Donald Burden and his wife, Mary Lea, one which included a few days in their beloved Paris – coinciding with last week’s horrific terrorist attacks.
The Burdens returned to the U.S. late on Sunday “Safe, exhausted, somewhat confused about all the happenings,” the mayor relayed to friends who expressed concern about the couple, knowing their travel plans, “and thinking about the innocent and the innocence of Paris.
“Our hearts go out to all,” he said.
By Saturday morning, in the aftermath of last Friday’s ISIS attacks that ultimately left 129 dead, Burden observed of Paris “It was almost ghostly quiet.” Disconcertingly so, he said. Paris is always a vibrant city, Burden explained, especially on Saturdays. In the Burdens’ experience during their many trips to Paris, Parisians and tourists on the weekends flock to the cafes and museums. Many of those spots were either closed or if open, vacant, Burden, noted. “Saturday night,” he recalled, “the entire town was dark,” and the streets were empty.
“The City of Lights was in darkness.”
Speaking with French citizens, there was a numbness, a shock among the city’s residents, he said. But there was also an anger and the beginnings of a resilience. “There was a sense of enough is enough,” Burden said. In addition, there was a sorrow with many apologizing to the American tourists. “They were saying ‘It’s too bad this had to happen while you were here,’” he said.
The Burdens had spent much of the week in Provence, traveling by rail from Avignon on Thursday to Paris.
This was the couple’s seventh trip to Paris, a city they have come to know and love. “The whole spirit of living, the grandeur,” of Paris, is what, in part, Burden said he really appreciated.
“They have a greater sense of history than anywhere else. And the food is to die for,” he offered as other appealing qualities. “I probably know the museums of Paris” – where you don’t have one or two Monets, but dozens – “better than in New York,” Burden acknowledged.
Burden, who is now retired, was working in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001, during the World Trade Center terrorist attack, and there are similarities as well as differences between the experiences, he offered. While in New York that day 14 years ago, it was one location; here there were a number of sites, and that, along with the terrorist killings earlier this year, likely contributing to the confusion people were experiencing last weekend. “I think a lot of French people thought this wouldn’t happen again,” he suspected. But given that it had, “They were trying to figure out the connections,” among the targets.
Leaving Paris security was incredibly tight, with “checkers and checkers checking checkers and checkers checking checkers and checkers,” as they made their way to their flight home after hours of precautions. When arriving at Newark Liberty International Airport, they again faced close security, with officials reviewing their passports and inspecting carry-on luggage before being able to disembark the plane – the first time Burden could remember that ever happening.
They like to travel and Burden said they will again, of course. “I wouldn’t say we have reservations,” about future travel, he explained. “But I would say we would carefully consider our next destination.”
But no reservations about again returning to Paris sometime. “It’s just a wonderful city,” he said.
