PARIS.
paris is for lovers. paris, je t'aime. paris when it sizzles.
paris was amazing. seth and i had a glorious time, getting lost, getting confused, getting cultured, getting duped, feeling like legit tourists for the first time in a long while, and speaking some sort of minimal, ridiculous semblance of french.
je ne parle francais.
deal with it.
so we arrived at the hotel st. doiminique around noon on monday. we checked into our room, and promptly went out to have a look around. after wandering aimlessly up and down the sparkling banks of the seine, admiring the view of the eiffel tower from every angle, we headed over to the louvre, via the tulieries gardens, which were green and full of sculptures and crepe stands. we had a munch on the latter, and headed in.
seth and i learned a very valuable lesson on monday - the louvre, for all of its famous shit, it quite possibly the most confusing museum to navigate. ever. we spent about an hour cross through galleries of byzantine artifacts, baroque ceiling paintings, and countless naked goddesses, gracefully posing with deadly creatures. our favorite was this one of cupid & psyche. it was just beautiful, and very simple. unassuming in the corner of a room full of michelangelo's various contorted slaves.
after we'd had our fill of marble, oil paintings and signs we couldn't read, we wandered back out into the sunshine and over to notre dame. on the way, i had my first croque-monsieur. it's a grilled ham & cheese sandwich. delicious. i am quickly becoming obsessed with french cafe cuisine.
the cathedral kind of rose up out of nowhere. it's so bizarre to suddenly become face-to-face with these buildings i've seen and studied a million times. to finally be standing in front of the most famous church in the world.
it's a lot to take in. so we wandered in, gazed at the beautiful rose windows, the amazing stained glass that has lasted through so much destruction and despair. apparently, the city was going to tear down the church in the 1800's, but the book the hunchback of notre dame was so popular that the public wouldn't let it happen. it's been standing ever since. i lit candles for my families in every corner of the world, the people i miss very much and cannot wait to see again.
we then headed across the bridge and into the original shakespeare and co. the most amazing bookstore i've ever seen.
it was crammed with books - used and new, beat up, weathered, and barely creased. i found a book of poetry by lawrence ferlinghetti that was actually signed by him in 1979. i obviously bought it. and an old copy of love's labor's by yale shakespeare. i love old books. they also had this amazing mirror upstairs where people posted notes of love - of the shop, of paris, of other people in their lives. obviously seth & i contributed. it was so beautiful. we wandered back through the long, twisted streets of the latin quarter, picked up a baguette, some cheese and wine, and had a picnic in our bed back at the hotel. then we promptly fell asleep, and woke up at 11pm wondering what to do with ourselves. we went out walking and found the sparking eiffel tower, and some delicious, well-deserved beef stroganoff. carbs, cheese & red meat. that's all i ate in paris.
tuesday morning we got up and, after a failed attempt at procuring some bicycles, we headed up to montmartre. it was beautiful - all these winding back streets, cabarets, shops and cafes crammed together and covered in ivy. thanks to my guidebook, we found an adorable little restaurant where our very patient waitress translated the menu and then fed us well. we got sufficiently drunk off the crapload of wine we ordered, and then decided to climb up the the sacré cœur. the cathedral towered over the city, and after scaling the 200 steps the basilica, we figured it was necessary to go all the way to the dome of the church. 243 winding, unforgiving steps later, we found ourselves beholding the greatest 360 degree view of paris.
it was amazing - just looking down at the heights and colors of the buildings, so small and packed together, with only the eiffel tower marking the skyline. the sun streaming down through the clouds only made it more incredible.
after another long walk through marais, and more bread & cheese back at the hotel, we managed to stay awake, and ventured out to fulfill my ultimate goal - to wander the streets of paris all night. we scaled the eiffel tower and saw the many lights of the city of lights. then, wandering forever back through the latin quarter, we finally found a place to sit down and eat. they spoke very little english and we spoke even less french. perfect. then we went back to the seine, walking back up the bank, and crossing at the most ornate bridge that seth had become obsessed with.
we then walked down all of the champs-élysées to the arc de triomphe, seth's ultimate goal. it was too big to fit in one picture close up. massive, i tell you. but beautiful at night. and i couldn't stop singing that damn champs-élysées song we'd heard on french kareoke tv the night before. after i had thoroughly annoyed my boyfriend, we took off for the hotel again. this time falling into a well-deserved sleep. we hadn't stayed out all night, but it was still perfect. so quiet, so illuminated. just lovely.
wednesday morning, our final one, we woke up, checked out, demolished some coffee and chocolate croissants at a nearby patisserie and wandered back out into the sunshine for some last-minute sights. i dragged seth (willingly so) into the musée d'orangerie (or something) to see monet's 'waterlilies' cycle. so beautiful. everything in paris was beautiful. we debated art, and saw some more cool stuff in the downstairs collection - a lot more renoir, cezanne, picasso, etc. then back out to notre dame for the famous berthillion ice cream. it was well worth the hike.
we finished our cones on the way to the point at the end of the island, where this quiet little willow tree was. butting right out into the seine, we sat and rested and watched the world float by on tour boats and freighters. it was a perfect cap to our lovely, loving time in paris. i will miss our constant shouting at each other of "allez! allez!" or looking apologetically into shop-owner's faces as we asked them if they could speak en englais, si-vous-plait. paris is amazing. i want to go back. there was so much we didn't get to see - it's impossible to do a city like that in only 3 days. but we gave it a hell of a run.
seth left today, after our final night was spent eating chinese and watching odd british tv holed up in our lovely hotel room in notting hill. i'm going to miss him terribly. we were just getting used to each other again. but two months will fly by. i know it will.
and with that, i leave you. to finish packing. go to sleep. and set off on my next adventure.
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