I visited Paris once before and was not exactly in a rush to return. My previous visit was very short and not particularly enjoyable. It was a quick overnight trip on the Eurostar from London in 2005, when I travelled with friends. I remember Paris was hot, frustrating due to language issues, and smelled of urine absolutely everywhere we went. I also remember that it seemed everyone was happy in the city except me and I was miserably homesick for one of the few times in my life.
This trip was different. I brought “home” with me and even though it was August it was downright chilly for the first 4 days we were there. We found many more English-speaking Parisians than I encountered before- or than we encountered in Chezal-Benoit or Rouen, for that matter.
Paris was more crowded than London was, but still less crowded than a normal summer. Part of that might be that Parisians leave the city in August, and we did see lots of signs on restaurants telling us that they were closed for their annual vacation. We had been warned of this but, honestly, it didn’t impinge on our visit, at all. Everything we wanted to do was open and there are so many restaurants that even if a quarter of them closed we still had a plethora to choose from. We had incredible Indian one day and lovely desserts almost everywhere.
We had an enjoyable, mostly relaxed trip. We even caught a carnival in the Tuileries Gardens and visited several playgrounds. The relaxed vibe was helped somewhat, I’m sure, by the fact that we’d already made our decision to return home and were just doing our best to make good memories the last week.
The boys were good natured enough to tolerate museum trips two days in a row and I made several boat trips on the Seine and only got slightly nauseous. We saw the Musee D’Orsay and the Louvre, Notre Dame and Sacre Coeur, Shakespeare and Company and Pylones.
And I discovered the most wonderful little patisserie just a block from our Air B&B. I will not stay in THAT apartment again, but will likely want to stay nearby as their pain au chocolate bicolore were absolutely addictive and worth a trans-Atlantic flight!
(For the record, though, once the weather warmed up on day 5, it began to smell like pee everywhere again!)
