Why I Love Paris

Ah, Paris, the city of lights. I've been there several times, and every time I visit I am amazed at the feeling that I have just gotten home.

My first visit was during a nine-day trip to France when I was 16. We spent only a few days in Paris, and almost didn't have time to visit the Eiffel Tower. As you can see here, though, we did manage to see it and I took this lovely photo. The lights on it spell out 100 ans; it was all dressed up for its 100th birthday.

I saw a bit more of Paris (including a shamefully abbreviated 1-hour tour of the Louvre) during a few brief visits when I was studying in Rouen in the summer of '95.

But it was the following summer that I really got to know this beautiful city. I lived in a tiny studio in the 18th arrondissement just below Montmartre for two months. My boyfriend was with me for a month of that. Every morning, we tried to find a new bakery and try their pain au chocolat - chocolate lovers take note. We bought organic vegetables and herbs down the street and made pesto and salads and ate fresh berries with crème fraîche. We ate out only twice. We each bought a sketch pad and set aside an hour a day to work on our drawing skills, drawing one picture of one another and one of the view of Paris from my 6th story window. 

The weather was fabulous - it didn't rain that whole month until our last day together. Every day, we looked in my guidebook and found a new park to visit somewhere in or near the city, then took the subway there and had a picnic with just some cheese, an avocado, and a baguette. We bought the baguettes at a different bakery every day. The best are the ones that gradually bend in half when you hold them in the middle. The parks ranged from cultivated gardens to fake ruins to simple neighborhood parks. After our picnic, we played a game of Scrabble and sometimes did a bit more drawing. We also played Scrabble in cafés all over Paris. At night, we looked in the weekly guide (I can't remember what it's called) and found different concerts to go to - string quartets, organ recitals, choirs - held in various churches, cathedrals, and parks around Paris. It was a simple and wonderful summer.

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