A walk about Paris will provide lessons in history, beauty, and in the point of Life. — Thomas Jefferson
It may surprise people who know me, and who know how much I adore Italy and how frankly miserable I am when I’m not in Italy, that my very favorite city is not on the boot. No, my very favorite city in the world (as much of the world as I’ve seen, at least) is Paris. Apologies to Florence, Milan and Venice.
Place Vendome. We strolled along here one dark evening, so I pushed the light on this one quite a bit. How many $100,000+ watches were being sold in the shops here? I can’t begin to say . . .
Those Parisian skies seem to hold something special, seem to hold me in thrall when I’m there, even though I’m neither local, skinny, a French-speaker nor adept at remaining vertical while walking on five-inch-heels on cobblestones like the native women do. I love Paris even when it drizzles, as the song goes. Even when you have to climb up four ridiculously badly lit flights of stairs to get to your 300-square-foot mini apartment which, when you get there, seems as grand and important as Versailles because it is yours for the week and you almost feel like you belong there.
We were invited to attend a wedding in
The Roue de Paris, through the gates of the Tuileries Garden. A whopping 200 feet tall, and made for the 2000 Millenium celebration. What a thrilling view of the Place de la Concorde!
Paris at the end of January and — even though we are scheduled to be in Umbria in June — decided that we dearly needed a break and said a totally irresponsible Yes to the trip. And then we remembered that it is never irresponsible to go to Paris on a whim because the city will always welcome you warmly and most everything else is bullshit, anyway.
Proust’s resting place in Pere Lachaise, the largest cemetery in the city of Paris. Visitors leave their metro tickets there to indicate that they’ll be returning. We will, too!
We stayed in the 10th arrondissement along the Canal Saint-Martin and, except for the wedding activities on the Rive Gauche, stayed close to this part of town and got to explore it and the bordering Marais district like locals. We spent a rainy day in the Pere Lachaise Cemetery with a mad guide named Rafael. We devoured croissant and pains au chocolat and found pretty decent wine at the local Carrefour market and bought arguably the world’s most expensive cheese, which was incredibly good.
I will write more about the trip, the people and the main character — Paris herself — at a later time. But for now, here are a few photos to whet your appetite.
Buon viaggio!
Linda Dini Jenkins is a card-carrying Italophile, travel planner, freelance writer, and amateur photographer. Travel is her passion, so writing about her travels just comes naturally. She hopes all her travelers find a way to express their joys, surprises, and fears as they travel and gives every traveler a nifty journal to help smooth the way. Learn more…
