I’ve referred to Silver Bells in a previous countdown as “sort of the classic urban Christmas song” and I stand by that characterization. I’m not quite convinced by this version’s delivery of the opening city sidewalks, busy sidewalks, sung by a musician best known for her (delightful) female-gaze-centred tiktok hit, but I love her sidewalk-shuffling rhythm and music box chimes.
I will miss Parisian street corners, not only because the buildings that define them are so casually, generously beautiful, but because the city is oriented towards the street in a way that gives it great liveliness. Traffic is terrible, so people bring their groceries home in wheeled trolleys. With meme-worthy zeal, Anne Hidalgo is rapidly reclaiming space for cyclists and pedestrians in central Paris. But also, Parisians have lived in small apartments for generations, so people are used to seeing each other in terraces and parks and other open spaces.
Unfamiliar patterns of street life feel like a rather shallow thing to expect to miss about a place; easy to observe without speaking to anyone or going anywhere in particular. The local patterns of traffic are often one of the first things I notice in a new city. Do people jaywalk here? Will any turning cars or speeding e-scooters cut me off at the crosswalk? How do people pass each other, in these bustling streets?
Walking around with international groups of colleagues, I’ve more than once ended up in a debate about who has experienced the most intimidating traffic (it’s never me; Toronto and Paris have absolutely nothing on Beijing and Lahore). I don’t much like car traffic, but I love a busy city sidewalk. I know not everyone enjoys anonymous bustling urbanity, but to me there’s a richness to people passing by, hundreds of strangers hurrying to their own homes, each living a life likely no less complicated than mine.
Not above all this bustle,
- Tessa