Our Own Piece of Paris



Once the plans had been made to go to Paris for the weekend to finally reunite with my best friend after 3 months, I knew it would be a blog worthy event to write about. You could almost say that I had semi-pre-written it in my head. I knew we would see the Eiffel Tower, Arch de Triumph, the Lock Bridge, Notre Dame Cathedral and the Louvre. The things that are Paris. We went to all of the above mentioned places, in fact we went to the Eiffel Tower four times in two days! It was and is a magnificent structure that I absolutely love (if you could see my entire collection of photos this is clearly evident as there are more of that than anything else!) However, as I sit down to write it out I find that I don’t want to write about those things. They were all amazing in their own right, but when I think about what I would say, I feel like it’s already been said a thousand times in a thousand ways. What I find myself wanting to write about is all the things I didn’t plan on seeing, expect to happen, or semi-pre-write in my head. What I want to share is the Paris we saw and experienced.

Just a few of my Eiffel Tower shots



France is famous for many foods; cheeses, macaroons, crepes, baguettes, snails (which by the way happen to be delicious!) and of course… croissants! Now croissants have been my favourite food for as long as I can remember, partly because they are just so damn amazing, and partly because whenever I eat I get the clear and happy childhood memory of having them as a treat on Easter Sunday. Beautifully warmed in the oven giving that flaky, crispy topping and a middle that steams when you pull it apart, topped with jam or Nutella (which always melted in deliciously!) So when I finally went to France, I could hardly wait to have one from their country of origin. But Laura and I had decided to wait until Saturday to have a proper, typical French breakfast. Having waited 40 hours from my arrival in France to Saturday morning, I could not have been more excited! Once we had chosen our café, we sat down and placed our order only to be told by the rather attractive French waiter, “Oh, I’m sorry! We only have one croissant left! But we can give you the one and replace the other with tartine" It was easily 10am already, we had taken quite a walk to find a cute looking café and now I was being told that I couldn’t have a whole croissant to myself! Looking over at Laura I could see she was thinking the same, but both being too hungry to have to walk and find another café we decided to stay and get another croissant later that day. The breakfast finally arrived and we both instinctively reached for the bread first (leaving the best for last!) S it turned out the tartine was amazingly delicious too, crunchy hard crust with a soft centre. Light and chewy. Once we had polished that off, I grabbed my knife and carefully cut the croissant in half. The golden yellow pastry flaked and flattened under the pressure, bouncing back as I pulled back the knife. Spreading on some strawberry jam, I picked up the delicate pastry and took my first bite. Words cannot describe! It was amazing! The top, most flaky pastry came loose, sticking to the roof of my mouth while I pulled of a mouthful of the soft, buttery middle. The flavour of the croissant was subtle but defined, not sweet, not savoury but the perfect tasty pastry treat. As you may well imagine, half a croissant disappeared pretty fast and I could not wait to buy another. Luckily it was not long before we stumbled across a fresh food market and close by an amazing bakery where we purchased another of my French favourite.

 



Fish at the French Food Market
 

Colourful Veg at the French Food Market

Colourful Fruit at the French Food Market




Cheese at the French Food Market

 

Our Second Croissant
 (it was even more amazing than it looks!)

 On our second day in Paris we made it to the Louvre. I never took art as a subject in school, and so probably didn't appreciate art work for the way in which it is painted, the specific paint used or the choice of brush stroke. However, when we were in the Louvre this was rather freeing as I found myself being drawn to paintings not necessarily done by the most well-known artists, or perhaps not most skilfully done, but ones that seemed to hold a story behind them. Before too long I began making up these stories. I would find a particular painting that had captured my attention before calling Laura over and saying, “This minstrel is having a secret affair with a Princess that is really forbidden. Right now they are at a big event and he is secretly flirting with her while some handsome Prince is trying to steal her heart. You can’t see her but she is blushing which only encourages her lover more, and makes the poor Prince think that it is in fact him she is falling in love with!” We carried on like this for quite a while, looking at the emotions in the eyes of the subjects, the body language that the artists had so skilfully captured or the colours that told more about emotion than I thought colour ever could, that told the story as much as the scene itself.

However, my favourite painting of the day was undoubtedly Peter Paul Ruben’s The Virgin and Child in a Garland of Flowers. I was initially drawn to the painting by the vibrant colours of the flowers, but as I got closer it was the detail of Mary’s face, the way she looked so pure and peaceful. The cherub faces in the clouds that could only be seen if you looked closely. To me it was a perfect painting. I could find no fault and stood there staring, taking in its beauty and detail so that when I finally moved on it was imprinted in my memory, a memory far better than any photo I could take. Unfortunately, we had arrived at the Louvre in the afternoon and before we knew it, it was closing time. As we had not yet got to the Mona Lisa wing, we ran through the oncoming crowds all heading in the opposite direction until we finally found her on her solitary wall in the Denon Wing. There is no doubt it is an amazing painting, and I am so glad we got to see her before we had to leave. There was so much we got to see, but so much we also missed and I know we both can't wait to go back and continue exploring.

For Laura and I Paris was not just the Eiffel Tower, it was so much more. We discovered hidden places, saw sights we didn’t expect and when we left we truly felt that we had discovered and experienced our own piece of Paris.

More photos to come when internet is faster!