Un Voyage a Paris

September 6 to September 9, 2005

Steve and I hopped on the Eurostar last week, zipped through the “channel” and slipped into Paris for a quick four day trip. Paris is simply lovely … lovely, lovely, lovely! Its soo chic and fancy and yes even a bit frilly with it’s richly detailed décor of swirls and curls all covered in gold, it’s very cosy café lined streets (with seats facing out – so excellent for people watching), it’s trimmed, but leafy walkways, it’s infamous monuments like the Eiffel tower and the Opera House, it’s sophisticated inhabitants, the Parisians, with their simple, classy style and good posture (well most of them anyway) and of course the local cuisine – fluffy chocolate croissants, delicate fish dishes, light wines, crepes and cider and the most delicious pastries ever….yum. We actually managed one 3-hit dessert day – sheer gluttony. To combat this eating, we also walked up a lot of stairs and enjoyed some great city views from Notre Dame, the Pompidou and the Arc de triumph. I gained a new found admiration for impressionist art at the Musee d’Orsay and Steve stared “Mona” down across a very crowed room at the Louvre.


We also had a grand time hanging out with Ami who is living in Paris! Ami is a University friend from Vancouver AND more significantly was my very first long haul travel buddy, that’s when all this travel began! Around a decade ago (yikes) Ami and I travelled together to the maybe not quite as lovely, pulp and paper smelling city of Trios Riviere for 6 weeks on a quest to learn Francais. Guess things don’t change much as we still have the travel bug, also, Ami’s French skills still rock and mine are still a work in progress (very early stage!). It was great to get Ami’s perspective on living in Paris, her recommendations on places to visit and of course to go on the Ami A Paris walking tour. She also taught me a new word, which I’m going to adopt given a good situation to use it – “Bobo” – e.g. “this area is very Bobo”, or “that’s so Bobo”. Bobo being short for “Bohemian Bourgeoisie”. Kind of like “snotty hippies” or maybe “organic yuppies”?? Dunno, but, Bobo - I like it! I had been too Paris twice before, once with my parents and once with some friends while on exchange and while I thoroughly enjoyed those trips and have some fond memories, this trip Paris seemed a bit different. Maybe because of the sunny skies or the absence of mike’s “the worst place I have ever stayed at” hostel or maybe because this trip was with Steve and we had Ami’s insider perspective or maybe just because I am slightly more mature?? This trip was the one where I simply fell in love with the city of Paris! … just lovely!