What We Did in Paris

What We Did in Paris

Despite it being horrifically cold, we really did get to see and do some very awesome things. We took a bike tour where we got to see ancient Roman ruins and explore a new-to-us neighborhood, St-Germain. We did a walking food tour of Montmartre with Clotilde Dusoulier (my main bday present aside from actually going to Paris). We got to see and touch the most beautiful Iron Lady. We went to Musee d’Orsay and see beautiful paintings. I got to see the magical steps from Midnight in Paris. We went to the top of the Sacre Coeur and the Arc de Triomphe.
Now I know why it’s taken me so long to finish these posts of Paris: the trip is over and I don’t know when I am going back. When I look back though these pictures I can feel what I felt standing on the bridge looking back to the Orsay museum. I remember how excited I was to sit down in the cramped little creperie in Saint-Germain-des-Prés and order a ham and cheese crepe and an Orangina. I can still feel how numb my feet got on the Montmartre tour because it was so cold. I can feel the awe I felt when visiting my first Paris cemetery; all the cats, the blue, the beauty, the urgent feeling of never wanting to leave. I remember our first morning there and how it felt like a fairy tale because it seemed like just moments ago (more like 10 hours) I was in Seattle kissing Nora and Jacques goodbye but actually I was in Paris walking along the Seine. It doesn’t even seem like a place that exists when I’m not there but I can feel that it does.
Each time I’ve visited Paris I’ve had inspirations for living. My first trip gave me the taste of travel and Paris. The second trip was with Joe and we picked a name for the long haired black cat we knew we wanted while in Notre Dame. And on the third trip I got a great idea for a book while in Montmartre Cemetery. It won’t be my first book but it’s one I want to write one day.
I hope for next time we can go long enough that I can spend a day sitting inside wherever we stay, just feeling what it feels like to be in Paris. I hope to visit the Père Lachaise Cemetery and Galleries Lafayette and Sezane and Claus and buy more goodies from the pharmacy.
Whenever next time is, I can’t wait.