The Big Trip: Paris, Part Un

I have this friend. We’ll call him Smorgan. I have known this friend for a long, long time. Over the course of our friendship I learned, Paris is not Smorgan’s thing. I am not sure it was because of him (but I think I will blame it on him regardless) but for a long time I never really felt a strong pull to visit Paris. It took Kara telling me for years how much I would love it and so I decided when this trip was first conceived that Paris had to be on the itinerary. I had to know for myself folks.

And the verdict?: Paris is definitely my thing.

We arrived mid-day on a Thursday. Kara’s super cool friend Zannah (and now my super cool friend Zannah) lives in Paris and was kind enough to let us crash in her 200 square foot apartment. It was surprisingly cozy. Zannah was very kind to let us crash her beautiful life for a few days and to take us around town and feed us amazing food and speak French to people so we didn’t have to.

I am not really sure where to begin so I think I will start with the most visible symbol of Paris: the Eiffel Tower. I wasn’t planning to be awed by the Tower. I assumed it would be one of those things that is smaller in person and less exciting and grandiose than the movies make it out to be. Well, I stand corrected.

I fell in love with the Tower. I have no idea how it manages to be so seductive but it is. I was entranced from the start. We saw it during the day and then later all lit up at night.

We saw other important monuments like the Arc de Triomphe:

Notre Dame:

Sometimes self-portraits with 3 people are hard.

And the fruit stand from the movie Amelie:

Speaking of Montmartre, we spent a beautiful afternoon walking around its picturesque streets. Literally everywhere I looked was charming. I loved Sacre Coeur:

Mainly, I think, because the view from it looks like this:

Beautiful.

We also saw Paris on a boat ride down the Seine:

On the boat I loved to sit and look at views like this:

You should have seen the cameras go crazy on the boat when the Eiffel Tower came into view. People just love that tower. You would think though that they didn’t know you could take pictures up close. Kind of like this next shot in which Kara reminds me of the classic movie: “An American Tail“?

I call this picture, “Fievel goes to Paris”

Fievel goes to Paris after discovering there are in fact cats in America and the streets aren’t made with cheese after all. He should have known France has way better cheese anyway.

Next up: Versailles