Paris Partie Un

Editor's Note: I started thinking about what I was going to say about Paris almost as soon as I left the city. So even though my post about Avignon references Glasgow, this was actually written in London. In an attempt to preserve continuity, I have actually created a lack of continuity. Can you ever forgive me? No? Ah well. Such is life.


Oh mon dieu.

Paris.

To give you an indication of my love for this city, allow me to inform you that it rained most days, I walked around with soaking wet socks in the cold and I had upwards of fifty euro stolen from me and I can still count Paris among my favorite, if not my absolute favorite palces in Europe. (I can say this without a guilty conscience as I write it in London because the UK, as we all know, is not part of Europe. [Sarcasm, sarcasm!])

I've thought a bit about how best to write about Paris. Should I detail each day, should I flow between a series of stories placed across the visit, should I merely wow you with pictures and tell my stories through captions? I decided yesterday, walking down the Mall from Buckingham Palace, that I would 1) express my love for this beautiful city, 2) regale you with the tale of Bastille Day and, 3) give you a feel for the rest of the trip by enumerating my metro passes on my last full day. And, as it's quite a walk back to my hostel, I had a decent amount of time to decide that this is, in fact, my best course of action.

So, my love for Paris translated into a top ten list for you:
1) Notre-Dame-de-Paris

2) The Eiffel Tower

3) Men in Military Uniforms Singing

4) Montmartre

5) Baguettes (sorry, no picture- but we all know what a baguette looks like. Here's a video, if you don't. Skip to 0:47 if you don't enjoy Flight of the Conchords to get the joke)
6) The Seine

7) The Champs Elysees

8) Pont Neuf/Pont au Change/The walk by the Seine around Notre Dame (no picture again! French the Llama!)
9) La Madeline

10) It's a toss up between Notre Dame's gargoyles and Sainte Chapelle

Yes, in fact, most of my love for Paris cetners around Notre Dame: walking around on Pont Neuf, along the Pont au Change, leaving a lock on the Pont Notre Dame, glancing at the Seine between book vendors on a walk by the Isle de la Cite, surveying the scene from the top of Notre Dame, remembering phrases and ideas from the book that led to movies and musicals. More about that later. But I also loved wandering the streets of Paris, walking with the crowds to a concert before Bastille Day, seeing the windmills in Montmartre, walking by the graves in Pere Lachaise. Paris brings me to a city I know from high school French lessons, from the writings of Victor Hugo, from the history I've learned and the movies I've seen. A week is not enough to see everything, so I will be back. Everyone needs an excuse to visit Paris again.