After traveling to Paris for a few days with my family last summer, I didn’t feel an aching to return.  I know that sounds ludicrous, but I’m more of a smaller town kind of girl, and after our family had spent time in quaint French villages, Paris’s hustle-bustle came quite as a shock.  However, I included it on Jackie and my itinerary because, well, it’s Paris, you can’t very well traverse the railways of France and skip Paris. But I also included it because I wanted to give it a second chance to see if maybe I would fall in love with everyone’s foreign city crush.  Surely enough, this time around, I fell madly in love with Paris.  Perhaps it was a self-fulfilling prophecy, or perhaps it was because I had spent most of my journey thus far in cities and therefore I developed a fonder appreciation for them.  Regardless, Jackie and I were overwhelmed by the beauty of this city the second we set foot off the train platform.  Though we did not arrive until around 7 p.m., and though our Air B and B was so closet-sized that the sink was in fact the top of the toilet (yup, just like in prison), we had a magical 12 hours in The City of Light.

Highlights and moments:

-Eating escargot at Café Central on Rue Cler.  I had dined at this café with my family the previous summer and loved it.  Rue Cler is, I’m sure known to Parisians as the most touristy street, but to a tourist, it’s an enchanting, pedestrian-only street clad with cafes and an open-air market.  Jackie and I wanted to sample some authentic French cuisine, so we bravely ordered the escargot and, though it does have a rather rubbery texture, were delighted! The sauce they were drenched in was good enough to bathe in.

Ready for some escargot!

-Walking under the Eiffel Tower and along the Seine River. I don’t think it matters how many times you’ve seen the Eiffel Tower in person, it will never cease to amaze you.  Jackie and I began our walk through Paris at the “golden hour” when the sunlight is just beginning to set, dipping clouds and building tops in a rose gold hue.  We watched the lights come on the Tower, and the contrast of the larger-than-life golden structure against the dark blue sky was stunning.  Jackie and I kept lamenting the fact that not a single one of our photographs truly did the city justice, everywhere we looked was immeasurable beauty.

Don’t know what’s prettier, the girl or the tower

-Learning to salsa dance on the Seine.  Per a recommendation from a friend who used to live in Paris, we went into a “barge” bar of which I have sadly forgotten the name.  Being a barge, the bar was directly on the beautiful Seine River, illuminated by both neon pink and twinkling white lights.  French bass pumping house music entranced the predominantly local crowd.  Two high-energy French guys who were enjoying a prolonged post-work happy hour approached us, or I should really say bounced and waltzed up to us.  They were very funny and very enthusiastic about Paris; they could not fathom the fact that we were only spending one night in their beloved city.  Even after clearing the air and breaking it to them that we were both in long-term relationships, they continued to entertain us just the same. Both of them were like pinballs, bouncing from one “Frenchglish” conversation with us, then off to the dance floor to jump around with other locals, then back to us to try again to speak English as best they could.  Some sort of Salsa/French fusion song came on and they enlisted us in our first ever attempt at salsa dancing, which ended up being a hysterical display. Just before midnight we bid our friends adieu and decided to walk the whole way back to our Air B and B.  It was about a 30-40 minute walk, but the night air felt refreshing, and since our room was directly off of it, we could take the Champs Elysee all the way back.  That walk home was one of my favorite strolls of my entire journey.  Every Roman, Medieval, Renaissance, and Classical building was illuminated by soft, glowing light, all casting impressionistic sparkles on the Seine. Jackie and I were walking across one of the many glowing bridges, and we both had to pause and spin slowly to take in our fictional panorama.  “Everywhere you look is…beauty,” Jackie said with exasperation.  “I’m…having a moment!” she continued. Giggling, we linked arms and trotted our way back to our cell, I mean B and B room ;).

Champs Elysee

We’ll always have Paris