Who isn’t thinking of Paris?
Paris has been on my mind particularly in the last few days because one of my daughters is moving there for a few months to concentrate on her language studies.
I know that she is the one who is moving…and that I must remind myself that it is not me who is packing a bag, jumping on a train and sharing a cute apartment with a girlfriend on the edge of the 3rd and the 10th arrondissement.
Does that sound like bliss to you?
It does to me and it would be my idea of heaven to trade in the responsibilities of every day life for a suitcase and a train ticket to one of the most beautiful destinations in the world.
So as our conversations race back and forth about what to pack, what to see and where to go I am thinking more and more about Paris.
I am reflecting on all the wonderful things she will be able to experience because she has time on her side.
There are those moments that we all share in Paris; they might be considered touristy by some but I believe they are quintessentially Parisian and obligatory for the first time French traveller.
Thinking of Paris
*Ride to the top of the Eiffel Tower
*Walk along the banks of the Seine
*Cruise on the Bateau Mouche
*Pose for a silhouette at Montmartre and think of Edith Piaf as you hum La Vie en Rose
*Light a candle at the Sacre Coeur
*Cabaret it at the Moulin Rouge
*Take your photo at the top of Notre Dame with the gargoyles for company
*Promenade up the Champs-Élysées and admire the view from the Arc de Triomphe
*Drink the most expensive coffee ever at Les Deux Magots, indulge in a mille-feuille pasty at Café de Flore and have lunch at Brasserie Lipp (downstairs if you can swing it)
*Try a macaron from Ladurée
*Window shop and dream in the Place Vendôme
*Smile back at the Mona Lisa in the Louvre
*Feel goosebumps all over gazing at Manet’s ‘Picnic on the grass’ in the Musée d’ Orsay
*Go groovy at the Georges Pompidou centre and admire the view with a glass of champagne from Georges.
*Hang outside the Sorbonne and soak in all that brilliance
Thinking of Paris, the places that we fall in love with, the intentional and the unintentional discoveries we find and the adventures along the way. xv
