Paris

I’m home again after spending eight days in Paris. It was a wonderful trip, one that I could write about for hours upon hours. If you’ve ever been on the fence about visiting, please consider my opinion of Paris to be a violent shove toward the side of going. It’s an amazing city with an unbelievable amount of things to see, and delicious food to boot. I typically hate cities as I feel too compressed, but Paris maintains a low skyline by law, so it’s a bit like being in a mini-Cooper with the top off and the windows down. It’s tight, but you can still breathe and feel the wind in your hair (or across your scalp in my case).

I don’t have photos of this particularly, but one of my favorite aspects of Paris was how many people seem to get out and enjoy the city, and that the city allows them to do so. My wife and I went to the River Seine multiple times to sit and watch the boats go by, each time doing so with wine or snacks (or both). We were among many. There are sections of the riverbank where visitors setup PA systems for live bands and dance the night away. Others bring full course meals and sit with their friends for hours. It was fantastic to see and a wonderful change of pace from what you typically experience in the parks and beaches around the US (no glass bottles, no alcohol, no loitering, no entrance after sundown, no talking, no fun, etc).

Go to Paris, please.

Now for a few photos.

Our trip was a guided tour through Trafalgar (our second time using the company with zero regrets, and this trip particularly had an excellent tour director), and one of the many places we visited was Monet’s Gardens. It was serene in its beauty and very easy to understand Monet’s inspiration.

The path leading to his home.

We spent a full day walking among various sites of the Normandy invasion, but Omaha beach (above) stuck with me the most. There are two reasons. One, it’s nothing but a shooting alley, and the Germans took full advantage of that. Standing on that beach, one that is now populated with families and playing children (something our fallen soldiers can surely appreciate), it was impossible to not feel the weight of death that was so easily wrought there. The second reason is that all along this beach, several homes openly display the American flag beside their own French colors. 70 years later, and the people still remember and respect what happened there. It was moving to see such honor.

The Palace of Versailles is amazing in its own right, but what impressed my wife and I even more were the grounds the palace sits upon, over 215,000 acres. This one photo is barely a glimpse of what they hold, but it does give you the general idea of the size.

I’ll stop here, as I don’t want to turn this into a travel blog, but I did want to share. I loved my trip, and I have every intention of going back, and hopefully soon. Expect some Flash Fiction that will obviously draw inspiration from this visit.