Just some shots while walking the streets, as I find myself doing most days.
September is a good month to be in Paris. If you can visit then, please do. The crowds come back from their summer breaks, the city picks up and moves on with life after stagnating a bit in August, the wind ushers in cooler days and occasionally enough sun to go bask in the park. The creative energy of city life returns, along with the amazing pastries as all the bakers are back at work as well.
One of the best urban oasis in Paris is Parc Monceau in the 8th arrondissement.
It's so beautifully designed. It's unique that upon exploring the gardens, you will find a series of "follies"- structures that look like ancient ruins from around the world scattered throughout the garden.
Unusual for a garden in Paris, it's laid out in the more haphazard English style, with winding paths and enormous old trees, and a much less manicured look. On a sunny day, the lawns are packed with sunbathers and teenagers drinking Kronenberg, and about a million children.
Yes, I am aware that it's May. I'm behind, and Count Basie just didn't write the song for any month but April, now did he.
The weather in April is a bit manic- we get these really sunny bright days that the wind will be incredible, and a constant barrage of rain and hail will catch you by surprise, because the sun will be shining the entire time. Ah, Paris. A crafty vistor will have an umbrella at their side the entire time they are here.
The gardens become lovely places- the hidden courtyard at the Petit Palais is one of my favorites, if only because you can run in and use the bathroom if you are in the need.
My favorite thing about the Louvre is going on a Friday night. They are open late, and it's as quiet as you are going to get in the most visited museum in the world.
But Paris is really the greatest city if you love walking around and exploring. I'm still surprised at what I find.
At night, the area around the eiffel tower swarms with tourist and pushy souvenir-hawkers with their glow-in-the-dark handfuls of nighttime wares. You see dozens of them, like fireflies, darting from one group to the next with their wares.
A sure sign of spring: Swarms of Beekeepers in the gardens.
And the models in very little clothing posing for the camera:
Another place to catch a free view of the city is the rooftop of Galleries Lafayette.
I do love having company. Aside from the social aspect of re-connecting with old friends, it's great fun for me to take people around town. I feel like an undercover tourist, able to really see the city again through naive tourist eyes. I'm not sick of it yet anyway.
The day was warm and sunny, so we planned to have a picnic on the Champ de Mars, but we were going to get there creatively. We looked at several boat companies and settled on the hop-on, hop-off one so we could get back home eventually.
Well.
It didn't quite work out as smoothly as promised as we ended up waiting for several boats before one would actually let us on, and on the way home, the river was too high to pass under the bridges past the Louvre (but, you know...no announcement, just a bemused curiosity as to whey we got to turn around and do it all over again), so we ended up making another loop around and then having to take the metro home. Anyway...the company was fine, the picnic was good, and the scenery from the back of the boat was as good of a way as any to check out the city on a fine sunny Sunday.
That's the Tour Saint-Jacques. It was part of a church that was destroyed during the revolution, but oddly enough, instead of razing the whole thing in the aftermath, they just left the church steeple as a monument.
One odd thing to see on such a sunny day: jet contrails zig-zagging across the sky. It's usually so cloudy here, you don't see them.
Parisians will sit out by the river and picnic every possible chance they can get.
It's so dreary here for most of the year, it's a real mood lifter, and for days after a sunny weekend, you will see the people of Paris with telltale pink cheeks and odd tan lines.
Pont Alexander is, by far, the most ornate bridge.
Destination picnic!
The lawns around the Eiffel Tower are popular with locals and tourist alike. It's great people watching, and sitting on a blanket with our wine and cutting board of fromage and saucisson sec and good baguette got us in some starring roles of tourist photographs all over the world.
