The day it rained on the Île de la Cité.

It was the day on which it rained on the Île de la Cité and nowhere else in the city. It was the strangest thing I had ever seen, but on that day, at that time, it seemed like the most natural thing in the world.

I was standing on the bank of the Seine, looking out across the grey snake in the direction of Chatelet, when the clouds burst. Sheet rain instantly partitioned the island from reality. Like a still from an old film noir, the Island seemed to freeze. I could hear the fizz of life from the opposite bank, but everything around me was muted. The other people seemed unaware of our separation from the world of the living and went about their daily lives in slow motion. Meanwhile, I stared across the river and observed the commotion caused by the sudden rainfall. The traffic had stopped and people - tourists and locals alike - had poured from their vehicles to point their cameras in our direction. The gawking faces were the last thing I saw through the rain before the sky tore itself in two and everything went black.