I was doing pretty well for the first part. But being in Paris with a person who has never been there before and wanting to show them ALL THE THINGS takes a toll on your feet. Especially at the Louvre. Never again!

Although… it did amuse me to catch Magikarp by the pyramid fountain there. Maybe I’ll make an exception.

By the fourth day, I was sort of museumed out, but we still had more to cover. I had fond memories of the Picasso museum from the 90’s, though it didn’t seem to impress my hubby. He did, however, have a transcendent experience over Monet’s water lily paintings.

The Musée D’Orsay was the only museum that I really required us to go to, so I was completely exhausted but very happy to be there.

I tromped all over the museum until I found my favorite painting by Henri Rousseau. I was exhausted but I was not going to miss this painting.

Despite the fact that we were there for 10 days, it really felt like a whirlwind tour of Paris. I felt more like a tourist than I was used to feeling. I lived there for a while during school, so I was kind of accustomed to being more of a resident, enjoying la vie quitodienne. I don’t even know if I can recommend little out-of-the-way places in Paris at this point. We basically staggered home each night, ate in one of the little restaurants on the way to the hotel from the metro station, and then passed out in bed till we got up in the morning to do it all over again.

Oh wait! I do have one kind of an interesting fact to share; it seems that the iconic surly waiters of Paris have been replaced by adorable hipster waiters who laugh with you, make jokes, generally seem happy to be alive and help you with the menu. That was kind of cool.

But I really missed going to little grocery stores and looking at weird food packaging, sitting in cafés and sketching (as trite as that sounds I actually am an artist so I art a bit here and there ;)… also, COFFEE) and having random people talk to me about what I was sketching. The French are dear, lovely folks with a different set of priorities than North Americans. They won’t tell you their life story in the first 20 minutes that you meet them (like my happy Texan cohorts) or chatter aimlessly about life. They will ask you about your politics and expect you to be able to back up your thoughts and feelings with the reasons you think so. I understand that and can more or less do so in French, but I also find it super adorable when they get happy chatty about me sketching AND being able to speak French (despite the fact that I am an American who learned the bulk of my French in Texas.) It’s the little things in life, you see.

It was just going by too fast.

Oh well. I suppose I’ll just have to go back.

I thought it was going to be cold in October, but I was in short sleeves every day, which was really nice walking around the parks and made for some fairly striking pictures of the sculptures there, but seriously half the clothes I brought I couldn’t wear because they were too warm. I was frankly a little disappointed not to be able to wear my scarves. I’d worked so hard during my time in France to master the art of wearing a scarf all for it to be too sweaty to do so! C’est la vie!

And finally we ended up at the Eiffel Tower at night.

Beautiful… and still, to this day, startles me with how big it really is when you walk up to it.

Also new, and saddening, is all the security that they have around the base of the Eiffel Tower. The last time I went there in 1999 it was free and open, there were hotdog vendors who sold amazing hotdogs with the mustard that their grandmother made that morning (holy cow, so good) and now you have to go through a long line, a gate, and an inspection of your bags and generally cranky security folks who would much rather be drinking wine in a cafe enjoying the atypically beautiful October weather thankyouverymuch.

Dear human race,
Can we please get our acts together and be nice to each other so that we don’t have to go through this crap? Thanks ever so.
Love,
fredlet

Again, we got back to the hotel about 2 in the morning, so I was rather looking forward to parking my weary butt on the Eurostar for a few hours to get to London for a sneaky little trip-in-a-trip. 20k steps a day (according to my FitBit) can wear you out.

J’❤ Paris.

Also, J’ ❤ this bunny.

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Next up, those London parts… stay tuned.

I haven’t been to Paris since 1999 and I really, really missed it. I wasn’t certain how much had changed, a city that large and that cosmopolitan clearly has to have changed greatly since almost 20 years ago. But then again we’re talking about a city that has been kicking around before the Romans decided to put their mark on it.

The architecture, the layout, the parks, and the museums of course were still there, but Paris has always found a way to reinvent itself. The citizens have become more diverse, things have evolved, and, of course, it reflects the outside world while still retaining its own self.

Also there are push scooters EVERYWHERE. It’s pretty hilarious to see such stylish people scooting their way down the sidewalks towards a metro station.

I’m still also giggling at the happily surprised expression on Parisian faces when I respond in French, and then they ask if I speak French and I say yes. I’m not certain why this is so atypical. I guess having aged a bit since I was there last I don’t look like the Irish person that I used resemble. (The Irish tend to speak lots of languages; I’m kind of in awe of them.) they used to not be so surprised that I spoke French and would inevitably ask me if I was Irish. But then they were actually astounded when I said I am from Texas.

The one thing I did miss this trip was being able to snoop around grocery stores like Monoprix or just the little local fruit & veg market and find an adorable grocer to visit every day for my white peaches or tomatoes.

We spent so much time in museums catching my husband up on basic Paris and it’s fabulous collection of art that by the end of the day my feet were in active revolt and it was all I could do to catch the metro home, find a little restaurant to eat at, then manage to get back to the hotel room and pass out.

I think I bruised my feet. Poor feet, I’m so sorry!

Note to self: bring the whole bottle of Tylenol next time. Speaking of Tylenol, that was fun; trying to remember paracetamol and conveying sore feet to the French pharmacist.

We managed to walk about 8 miles the first day just excited to be out and about in the weather that was pretty glorious for October. We spent the next day in the Louvre though we only saw two of the wings… and only 7 miles of walking. Had dinner at the café (Café Marly) that wasn’t there when I was there last – I really should stop comparing to last time because there’s too many things to list. Sigh.

I’ve actually taken several people to Paris for their first visits. There’s several things that I teach them that make being in Paris much easier. The first one is how to use the metro. It’s really not that difficult, but getting oriented takes a couple of rides. Another learning experience is to survive eating in a restaurant (ordering, asking for water, the bill, etc. Mostly the waiters now are younger and are pretty mellow and also they tend to speak at least smattering of English, so really not too much of an issue). Though my favorite food to eat is the street carts full of sandwiches jambon et fromage, crèpes Nutella, pain au chocolat and all of the other heavenly things that I seem to live on while I’m there. Not to mention Kinder eggs; I’m pretty sure they have medicinal properties…

Given my druthers I’d walk around with a shopping bag full of sammiches and white peaches to eat gazing wistfully into the french cooking supply stores and quite happily skip most of the major museums now.

Worst art degree holder ever!

The third day was another long walking day; the Orangerie and the Orsay. Said hello to some of my favorite paintings by Henri Rousseau etc and marveled at how much the museum space has evolved.

Why am I so astounded by this change? I guess because when I am there it is such a place out of time and cemented so thoroughly in my consciousness that I want to keep it the way it is. Guess I better make sure I can visit it in the real world instead this time and keep up with the evolution. They say you can’t go back again but happily Paris keeps evolving into a slightly new place while keeping true to itself. I’m very pleased about this.

Good job, Paris.

Though I did have plenty of things to revisit, I still needed to go see some new things myself. I had never been to Versailles so we took a day trip out to the palace.

To be honest I was not exactly excited about going there. It isn’t my favorite time period, the decorations to me don’t seem beautiful; but gaudy. I really prefer the medieval period. If we are going to get down to brass tacks, the Cluny museum would’ve been my first choice, but the request was for castles and art just so we went Versailles.

Full disclosure, I also have a French degree. So I have a little more background in French history than most of your casual tourists there. I was a little bit predisposed not to be excited about the palace but I put on my best happy face and we went through and had a good day nonetheless. Wasn’t my favorite, so I don’t think I’ll go back unless it is to spend the entire day in the gardens; it was a lovely day and they are really beautiful and so very huge you need an entire day to see them.

If I’m going to do more palaces, we’ll probably just head down to the Loire Valley – I’ll demand more cheese and wine on the tour.