Paris, Je T'aime!

Here we are in the city of love or as it will be refered to from now on: the city of bread, wine and cheesarie (yes S, also crepes and pastries!).  Wow, where to start?  If you can remember that feeling you got as a kid when you wanted to tell someone a really good story and just didn't know how to get it out, this is how we feel right now about Paris.  Needless to say we both absolutely loved this city. 

Paris is a grand and classy city.  It has large boulevards, impressive buildings, fountains and statues and many well manicured parks (little corner parks and larger ones such as Jardin de Luxembourg).  To add to this, most of the buildings have a light facade with a dark rooftop and balcony - it was amazing to see such uniformity in colours and style.  It is a lot of what gave the city its visual class. 

So you walk around Paris' arrondissements and around every corner there is something new to amaze you, whether it is a little market, a street performer, a park, a statue or a beautiful bridge.  There are a million and one bistros in a city block and they must go through a gizzilion tons of Nutella judging by the way they slab it on their crepes (YUMMY!).  We had never before seen a 15kg jar of Nutella little less a nearly empty 15kg jar of Nutella until we got to Paris. 



Jardin du Luxemborg



The parks of Paris are built for peoples enjoyment.  Every park has benches and lots of chairs that you can move around.  Whether its sitting by the fountain or under a tree the choice is yours.  It apears that the Paris parks committees care more about peoples enjoyment than theft and vandalism.  Crazy WE KNOW!!!!  It's these kinds of civilized differences where people have respect towards their city that really let you enjoy a place. Makes you wonder why it is that in certain places people just don't get it. 


As as aside, we have noticed that there aren't that many homeless people around Europe.  In Toronto, there's homeless all over the downtown area.  Until we got to Paris and saw two, we hadn't yet seen any at all.  They may have been out there but we didn't see them and we did walk around a lot.  This, however, excludes the many street beggers we have seen and the street kids in Paris.

To discuss a few myths about Paris:

the wine IS cheap AND good

the cheese IS cheep AND delicious

the bread IS great

the waiters ARE NOT all *ssholes (though some are... but only in the artsy bistros)

the people ARE snobs (but they do live in Paris so it's justified)

the french DO strike 365 days a year (there was lots of striking and demonstrating/rioting going on while we were there ... thank you Paris for taking the heat off Serbia in the news)

and people DO NOT have style (quite amazing how many people are incapabe of dressing themselves and no, they can't all be tourists).

Before we sign off, a special thanks has to go out to Danielle and Pierre for the most comfortable and hospitable stay in the perfect studio apartment a stone's throw from the Notre-Dame.  This apartment is beautifully decorated and has everything one would need in Paris.  Also, not only did Danielle and Pierre welcome us with open arms, big smiles and provisions to hold us over on our first day, they also had a bottle of champagne chilling for us!! Absolutely fantastic.  Merci beaucoup Danielle et Pierre, vous etes tres tres gentil!!

Enjoy the pictures (http://photobucket.com/paris_OCT2010 and password is "6ieme").



Notre Dame




Centre Pompidou - building features colour-coded electrical tubes (yellow), water pipes (green) and ventilation ducts (blue) along the exterior of the building



in front of La Basilique du Sacre Coeur



Hotel des Invalides - only monument in Paris to glint in real gold (25kg of gold)




Eiffel Tower from the carrousel



fountain next to the Obelisk, Place de la Concorde