La vie est belle

Well, I just finished spending 48 hours in Paris with my college roommate, Elah. I am surprised at how much we were able to see in such a short time. Elah is a expert traveler and knows how to hit up all of the sights.

After landing at CDG, I I took the bus to Elah’s apartment near gare Montparnasse, which is in the Southern part of Paris. I passed some interesting graffiti on the way there:

 

It is one of the only parts of Paris that has sky scrapers. There is some sort of regulation that prevents buildings in the city center from being taller than Notre Dame to Paris (so as not to destroy the integrity of the historic sky line?) After dropping off my bag, Elah and I decided to fight my jet lag and sore lower back by going on a walk. What a great idea! Side note: the view from Elah’s 15th floor apartment is pretty impressive. She lives in a fairly modern building right next to the jardin Atlantique (the Atlantic Garden).

The weather was stunningly beautiful for Paris. It was 65 degrees and blue skies. All of the trees were covered in bright green leaves of spring and many of the parks had lovely flowers. We walked through and around the Luxembourg gardens. Elah and I laughed about the shape of the trees in Paris. They trim them like topiaries – making them square. My theory is that this practice is tied to 19^th century Enlightenment ideals that sought to bring order to the natural world (e.g. creating very structured gardens with symmetrical garden plots and trimmed trees/plants).

After wandering around the garden for a while, we headed toward the Pantheon and the Latin Quarter to do what the Parisians do – sit at a café and people watch. And when I say “do what the Parisians do,” I mean it – I feel like there were thousands of Parisians out and about at these street facing café tables scattered along every street side in Paris.

People would just sit there for hours nursing a drink. We stopped at a cute little corner café and ordered a cheese plate. I sort of thought that we would get a sample of 3 or so cheeses to snack on. We ended up getting individual (large) portions of 5 different cheeses, an endless basket of baguette pieces, and a carafe of water. The cheeses were wonderful: crumbly goat and blue cheese, creamy brie and Camembert, and a mysterious hard cheese. They had wonderfully complex flavors that are quite different from the same types of cheeses sold in American grocery stores. We spent a few hours at the café watching the sun slowly dip behind the sandy colored buildings.

We walked around the Quarter a bit more and down this adorable street full of specialty food vendors. Here, you could find the cheese shop, bakery, meat shop, fish stand etc. It was so magical to walk down this narrow alley and see Parisians lined up to buy baguettes to take home to dinner. The fresh food culture in Paris is so vivid. It is such a treat to walk by and experiences the sights and smells of these places.

After wandering around a bit more in the Latin Quarter, we made our way to Notre Dame and the isles in the middle of Paris. I loved seeing the warm evening light transform the white stone of Paris into a brilliant gold.

Notre Dame is always a sight for sore eyes. It wasn’t too crowded when we arrived around 7:30 pm or so.

Eventually, Elah and I walked to the point of the isle where young Parisians gather to watch the sunset and picnic. It was a really magical place to be as the sun set. They sky turned a pretty violet color with sherbet colored clouds. We were surrounded by “les ados” playing instruments and chatting with their friends.

After the isle, we headed over to the Louvre, which was also really pretty to see at night. 

Then, we tried to walk to a famous hot chocolate place to enjoy some gourmet hot beverages, but they were hosting a private party when we got there. We took that as a sign that it was time to head home and settle in.