Travelogue: An American in Paris

There are monuments and then there are MONUMENTS. And for the rest of my life, I don’t think I’ll ever forget the way I felt upon leaving our hotel that first afternoon in Paris, walking toward the Champs de Mars and spotting the tip of the Eiffel Tower through the trees. “NICK! THERE IT IS!!! It’s sooooo beautiful!” I squealed.

And indeed, it is. Perhaps the most beautiful, most “exactly-how-I-imagined-it-but-better” monument I’ve ever laid eyes on. And for that, I can’t help but feel  jealous of all Parisians who get to enjoy it daily as part of their skyline.

It is true what they say about the banks of the Seine: They are where the French go to wind down the end of their days with bottles of wine, books, music, good friends and conversation. I could have drank in this sight all evening long.  Our first evening in the City of Lights and we spent it on a bateaux mouche taking in all the great Paris landmarks that line the River Seine. Those two peaks in the distance on the other side of the bridge? Notre Dame Cathedral I’ll spare revealing the number of photos I took of the Eiffel Tower, but if you were to make a guess using a three digit number that starts with “1″, you wouldn’t be far off the mark…. How our mornings started: Seated outside a café on little cane chairs with a French baristo bringing us baguettes with Nutella, croissants with jam, fresh-squeezed OJ and foamy cafe lattes. In my opinion, this is the beginning that EVERY day deserves.Day 2 and we get off the Metro outside the Jardin des Tuileries. I might have squealed again because walking these grounds, taking in this setting, you really DO feel like you’ve stepped into someone’s fairy tale. We propped our feet up on a bench, took swigs from a bottle of Coca-Cola (did you know they use REAL sugar in their sodas in Europe?), and burned images like the ones below into our minds. ‘Cause we may never go back, and this? Well, I don’t EVER want to forget this.

Yes, yes, we went to the Louvre (those images in a minute), but if you were to ask about my favorite museum in Paris (maybe of the entire trip), I’d tell you the Musée d’Orsay. If you are an Impressionistic freak (cough, “me” cough), then it doesn’t get much better than standing two inches from a Van Gogh self-portrait, studying each individual brushstroke in awe of a creative genius. Can I get a “amen” from any fellow art freaks out there? We took a tour of La Conciergerie. FYI: It’s where they executed a boatload of French during the French Revolution. That photo on the left is where they kept Marie Antoinette before it was her turn at the guillotine (with mannequins, because that’s how the Europeans roll). At right is a board of all the people who lost their lives the same way during the Revolution. The size of this photo diminishes the number you see there, but trust me, it was a lot. It’s NOTRE DAME. NOTRE DAMEEEEEEE and well, hello there handsome. Who are you? Your name is Nick? AND you’ll carry my sweaty Shootsac? Well, that’s nice of you. And you’re cute. Why, yes I will take your picture. And if you’re lucky, maybe I’ll take you back to the hotel with me It is a BEAUTIFUL cathedral no matter the angle you look at it. I am a big fan of its flying buttresses. I like saying that word. Buttresses (giggle). These two photos below are my two favorite images I shot during our stay in Paris. I feel like they perfectly capture this city, which, whatever your grand illusions of Paris, hold on to them. Because trust me, THEY ARE ALL TRUE. (Picture that fella to the right below playing music like this as Nick and I look out at Notre Dame with ice cream cones in our hands. If you’re jealous, well, beeeeliieeevvveee me, I’m already jealous of one-month-ago Gail too). We discovered Parisians LOVE to sit along the Champ de Mars picnicking and waiting for night to fall, at which point, the Eiffel Tower explodes into a billion twinkling lights and everyone claps and well, life is grand. We joined in with our version, having proudly navigated a Parisian grocery store where we were all, “Dude, I have NO idea what that meat is…IT’S IN A PACKAGE THAT’S WRITTEN IN FRENCH”. The results? A 7-11 version of the romanticized ideal, but hey, give me stale bread and cheap wine any day of the week if I get a view like this …The Louvre. Or what I describe as the “really pretty museum that had so many people inside it that I felt claustrophic.” Oh, and there’s no “if” you get lost in this place. You’re like a hamster in a maze in here. Instead of really focusing on the Mona Lisa (which is teeennnyyy tiny), I thought I’d just show you what you’re up against to get to the velvet rope to photograph her bewitching eyes. It’s like, SERIOUSLY!?!! Tourists….psssstttt…. such a nuisance Now, the inverted pyramid inside the Louvre? I was totally impressed with it. Well done I.M Pei, well done you.I’m in love with this shot. The Parisians know how to make a Metro sign, don’t they? Should this one be blown up somewhere in the Werner home? We were just walking along when we came to the Jardin du Luxembourg. At which point, Nick stopped, looked around and officially declared it: “Yep, yep, I’m positive. Paris is the most beautiful place we’ve ever been.” I REALLY hate that I didn’t get this gal below in focus. She caught that I was getting her in the picture and wasn’t happy about it (notice the head tilt) and it caused me to tense up while taking the photo. But I’m including it because dang…is that not SOOOO something you’d see in Paris? I mean, who wears straw hats? Beautiful Parisian women, that’s who. Do you remember this post? Well, I’ll just inform you that yes, we got our macaroons. And they were eaten from our hotel balcony. And yes, they were delicious. The Arc de Triomphe. The view from the top. The Champs Elysees. In the hour these photos were taken, I was in definite “Somebody-pinch-me-this-isn’t-happening” mode. We had escargot with our dinner. And I LOVED it. Had to resist sopping up what was left of all that butter with French bread after taking this photo. IT WAS REALLY HARD. But my thighs? Yeah, they thanked me for it later. Our last day we took about 15 Metro stops to make it out to Montmartre (if you look back at that panorama above, that little teeny tiny white speck on the horizon to the left? That’s Sacre Coeur and seeing it is how you know it’s Montmartre.) This hilly area was home in its day to Picasso, Dali, Toulouse-Lautrec and Moulin Rouge! Not quite as glamorous in the morning light, but a landmark all the same. It was my brilliant husband who explained to me that Moulin means “Windmill” in French. And rouge? Well, that’d be red. TOTALLY makes sense, right??? And finally, one last take-your-breath-away sight: Sacré-Coeur. It’s a hike to get here, but the basilica is breathtaking and the views of the rest of Paris? Unforgettable. Okay friends….on to Rome next. Did someone say PIZZA!!!??!!!

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