I’ve always wanted to go to Paris, the romantic city that was the setting for many Saturday movies when I was growing up. So when I started to consider a trip seriously I made lists of places I’d visit, things I’d do, food I’d eat and the list was long. I worried about getting lost, spending too much money (I didn’t want to seem rude and ask how much an item costs – like one author advised me against [4]), missing an experience from my long list, offending someone, missing my flight home and of course I worried about communicating in French. But, all this was worth chancing to get to feel Paris, not just read about it or see it on the screen. Two of the young daughters had to work and couldn’t come with me. And another was not quite ready for the trip. So Taj, 21, who had studied French, was the lucky one.
We were instructed by loved ones to text when the plane landed so, when we couldn’t get our phones to work we got anxious and started snapping at each other. Here we were in Paris but, you couldn’t tell. The inside of the airport wasn’t built hundreds of years ago. It looked modern. And the Verizon voice on my cell was all too familiar. As I tried to follow the directions the rep just kept assuring me that they would be able to solve the problem. It took about two hours and Taj and I bickered the whole time. We even fought about calling the shuttle service. The anxiety ended when we got into our shuttle and made our way to the city. We began to relax, listening to American pop on the radio.

Our last day.

I was surprised that the buildings (maybe low-income housing) were real run down. Some had broken windows with curtains blowing out the window. I saw only only one mill. When landing I spotted many crop fields. Then boom! Paris was in front of us. Like a wall between the now and the past.
The buildings are cream colored stone with an occasional spot of color. Always a lot of detail in the stonework. Seemingly, an entry into Heaven with its calming quality. Our shuttle driver zipped around intersection circles through several arrondissements, dropping other visitors at their hotels. It rained but, the rain was falling on arches and palaces and boutiques! It just made the city that much more romantic. As the driver dropped us one block from Le Louvre I knew we were going to have a good time. Taj was unpacking when I opened the window in our room and my breath was taken away by the roof lines and courtyard that may have not changed since its construction hundreds of years ago. The sun came out and birds began to chirp. Disney would pay big bucks for footage of that moment. Then they’d ruin it by adding a squeaky voice.

The relaxed feeling built during our stay, for both Taj and I. We hit several museums, Le Louvre, being the most surprising for me. I crowded, aggressively, to see the Mona Lisa and took a picture, feeling I had accomplished something. Then I left the room and looked around…… Awwwww. Wow! The castle itself is magical. It’s so beautiful and the great halls and endless marble stairways are real. I touched the same walls and floors that royalty of the 12th century touched!

There’s a mote in the back of Le Louvre.

Destinys Green Pen at the side of Le Louvre.

Napoleon?

Just one of the hallways in this old castle!

Some of the doors are large.

All week we went to museums during the day. We ate creeps in the parks. There are plenty of places for children to play in Paris. They even have a trampoline park. I noticed several parents teaching their kids to ride bikes under the trees of the park and along the sidewalks of tiny streets. I hear birds everywhere. Sometimes we ate at cafes. Then we napped or shopped for souvenirs. We chatted and laughed like we did when Taj was a four year old and I was her best friend. I know Shakespeare and Company was her favorite place in Paris. She was so deleted to linger in an unpopular small space of the bookstore where there were few people. It was really crowded. A quaint, old worn out shop and we left with a book in a cloth bag. We were on a ‘bookstore high’ (81).

At night we’d walk around the Latin Quarter or Montmartre and stop for snacks and drinks in different clubs. We were like locals visiting friends after a day of work, our work being sightseeing. Nearly everyone smokes there. It can be shoulder to shoulder at cafes and clubs and it hardly matters who’s puffing on the cig. The smoke is in your face, your mouth, your lungs. I smoked, Taj did too. Well, we did until it made since not to make ourselves sick. We took the metro from Arr to Arr. It was so fast and easy to figure out, apparently. I need glasses. Good thing we had Aaron and Tristan to show us around. Taj and I are well known for our lack of direction. Although I have to say that the grid of Paris is possible to get use to once you realize that the center of arrondissements are where the center of the intersection circles are. And they all have a monument. This makes it easy to remember where you are. Then there are so many streets jetting off from there. It did not matter whether we were lost though. Every turn gave us cafes and shops and people that spoke French.
Quite often there was someone playing music on the street or in the metro tunnels. I made sixteen recordings of people playing guitars, flutes, violins, trumpets and so many other instruments. I bought myself one souvenir, a crank music box that plays Le Vie En Rose. I like to be able to control the tempo with the crank.
There is so much more to tell. I’ll tell more next week. I hope you like the photos.
See you all soon.
Rai