Showing posts with label Paris. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paris. Show all posts

29 November 2012

curios of Paris - final thoughts


Paris is just such an unfathomable mix of the very classique and the very moderne.  Glass pyramids meet French Renaissance Palaces, modern art museums lie next to two-hundred-year old buildings, young boys skateboard on the steps of the Musée D'Orsay.  These contrasts can be found all over the city.  They are not only seen in the well known tourist hot-spots, but you can see these contrasts in the local fashion, the streets and metro configurations, of course in the cuisine, in the little perfect spiderwebs that dot the city, in the new Islamic Art exhibition at the Louvre, in the silly Kung Fu cats of Place de Vosges and in all of the other shops that line the city.  Some might say that these modern installations are an abomination on such a historic city.  But I think these bits of old-meets-new are what makes Paris such a fabulous and interesting destination.  There are a million adventures on every block.     

Five days was a laughably short amount of time to take it all in.  Sense overload.  As you can see from the month + that it has taken me to compile all of the photos and stories, and I am still trying to process it all.  The only thing that I know for sure, though, is that, I must return.

26 November 2012

Does breakfast get any better?



No, folks, it does not.  I am obsessed.  Cappuccino.  Croissant.  Maybe a little bit of jam for sweetness.  Simple.  Delicious.  For those of you that know me well, you will be flabbergasted to hear that I have ended my relationship with oatmeal.  Yes it is true.  This flaky pastry and frothy coffee has stolen my heart.  No more oats in the morning.  Give me croissant or give me death.

25 November 2012

Ridiculosity



Its not like Europeans are a small people.  On the contrary, I feel like I am walking among giants when I arrive at a European airport coming from the often-vertically-challenged Middle East.  But the cars in Eurolandia are sooo tiny!  They pack those little wind-up mobiles bumper to bumper in the crowded metropolitan areas.  Do Frenchmen feel like Austin Powers everyday they leave for work?

One day, I wanna get me one of those pink Vespas.  So purty...

23 November 2012

21 November 2012

silliness at the Panthéon



One of my favorite things that we saw in Paris was the Panthéon.  We had been walking, walking, walking all day and my legs seriously felt like they were going to fall off.  I was about to tell Pablo that enough was enough, let's take the metro home, but I held my tongue because this was one place in Paris that he hadn't been, so I really wanted him to get to see something new too.  And then, as he was trying to figure out the (insert four letter word here) map on his iphone, we turned a corner, and there it was!  This really big, imposing building just peaking out between the rows of apartments.  We got there right around sunset and there weren't too many other people there.  We enjoyed the brisk evening hanging out at the Panthéon, watching the young couples kissing and we took silly photos, though we apparently couldn't get the auto-focus to work.  For some reason, the Pantheon just seemed intimate and sweet and everyone there seemed to be having a really good time, it was worth the effort :)