Paris is my hometown

I had heard some terrible things about Paris. "It's overrated." "It smells bad." "The people are rude." "They hate Americans." "Don't expect anyone to be nice to you." So imagine my surprise when I got there and everything (aside from the exchange rate) was PERFECT.

Paris is beautiful. It does not smell bad. It deserves all the romanticizing it gets. Parisians like Americans in general and I didn't meet a single person who wasn't wonderfully kind to me. Think free meals, free alcohol and a seemingly endless supply of handsome men offering to carry my luggage. I was in heaven! Then again, I was a 20-year-old red headed girl traveling by herself, but still. (And in case you are wondering, no, I do not speak French but I wish I did. It's a truly captivating language)

I spent three days in Paris and it would be impossible to convey all of my adventures here, but I covered the following:

- Eiffel Tower (around, below, at night, from every angle, but didn't go up it)
- The Seine (at least three miles straight on both sides)
- The Champs-Elysees
- Aperitifs (coffee, martinis...)
- The Arc de Triomphe
- Shopping (omg the buyers in Paris blow my mind - the selection in Printemps is phenomenally well edited)
- Looking
- Walking
- Crepes
- Champagne
- Creme brulee
- Picnic lunch of a baguette and cheese
- Local Markets
- Sacre Couer
- Learning French from cute Frenchmen
- Post-midnight motorcycle ride around the lit up city
- Paris in the sun
- Paris in the rain
- French movie set
- Musee de Orsay
- Notre Dame
- The Louvre (walked by it, drove around it at night, ran through it in the rain, but didn't get past the lobby under the pyramids)

Not a bad record, I thought. I have about a million pictures (and not nearly enough) of my adventures, but here are a few:

Literally right across the street from my hotel, Hotel Boileau, in the 16th district.

Eiffel Tower. I took way too many pictures of this.

Arc de Triomphe. I wonder if this is where C.S. Lewis came up with Aslan's door between worlds. (Prince Caspian reference if you're wondering)

Beautiful. I'm pretty sure this is the bridge without traffic that all of the young people of the city picnic on in the late afternoons. When I walked by it was literally swarming with beautiful Parisians drinking wine and eating baguettes.

I'm pretty sure this exact spot on the river is in both Funny Face and Mission Impossible (2 or 3?).

The Louvre.

Notre Dame. Disney made it really hard for me to walk through the cathedral without images of card playing gargoyles and gypsies with perfect hair...

Sacre Coeur. Beware the aggressive Jamaican vendors at the front gate.

Crepe and coffee.

Paris in the rain.

The Louvre in the rain.

Sigh. I almost cried when I had to leave Paris, I loved it so much. But I will be back. :)