Street Scene at Night (by Karl, 5B)

Pau is a small town in southern France. All my life, I have lived in this small town and in a small house that is the closest to the biggest street of the town, l’Avenue Edouard VII. This street is part of me. I know it perfectly and have always been fascinated by it: A long avenue, with big trees on each side, and high white buildings, and the smell of the bakery, and the fresh air coming from the Pyrenees. When I was a little boy, I used to walk along the street and watch the seasons change its colors and moods. Thus, the street is cloaked in green, blue, and grey in the spring, yellow in the summer, red in the fall, and white in the winter. Its mood changes with the seasons, too. In the summer, the street is alive, active, and noisy withpeople and vehicles; in the winter, it becomes calm and quiet, especially when the snow starts falling and people keep themselves indoors and children do not have to go to school.

I am now a grown-up and as such I have go to work and gone are the idle days when I could whistle my life away while watching the street change its colors with the seasons. Gone, too, are many other things. But one thing remains unchanged, and it is the fascination that the street holds for me. In the evening, when I am home from work, I still like to watch the street. However, I like to watch it most at around midnight. At this time of the night, the noisy street transforms itself into a tranquil place. In this perfect tranquility, many things stand out. The colors of the night street become more vivid. I can see the yellow light streaming of from my neighbors’ houses, the red glaring headlights of the passing cars or the glowing blue and purple signs on the roof of the local restaurant. Even the cold air blowing through the small town from the Pyrenees smells fresher in the deep night. And of course, there is also that shrill singing of the crickets and cicadas in the summer months and the slow lazy hooting of the mountain owls that comes from and goes back into the dark depths of the winter nights.