In terms of cities, some seem to sparkle just a bit more than others.
And Paris, well...it may as well be the Hope Diamond.
Thousands of people have loved Paris, written about Paris, and lusted after Paris. Just the word itself conjures up images of romance and Marie Antoinette style decadence.
For me, Paris has always looked like a black and white snapshot of a cafe at night or a couple kissing in front of the Eiffel Tower. It's classic. And honestly, if Audrey Hepburn says that "Paris is always a good idea," then it must be a good idea.
And you know what's crazy? Paris really does look like those images we all have floating around in our heads. The food is beautiful, the buildings are stunning, and the night walking is unparalleled (unless you're in Pigalle (see stripper district) - in which case you're gonna get a whole different kind of night walking...). The whole place is a walking history book.
The problem - there's WAY too much to do if you only have a few days. It's easy to get overly ambitious and try to see everything. Which brings me to our perfect day, and what we did...which was actually fairly little.
We spent the morning at Musee L'Orangerie followed by a long picnic lunch and sun nap in the gardens next to the museum.
All in, the gathering of the lunch and the naps following lasted about three hours. The sun nap was followed by browsing in antique stores near The Louvre (we didn't even pretend to go in - long lines, no thanks), macaroons, and a long walk around central Paris. This walk led us home to a long and very decadent afternoon nap.
After this late afternoon nap, we headed out for a late and very long dinner at Chez Casimir (so insanely good it needs its own post tomorrow). The long dinner was four courses over almost four hours. The French have this dining thing down solid.
Full and tired, I somehow convinced Alex to round out our perfect day with a midnight trip to the Trocadero, the absolute best place to photograph the Eiffel Tower at night.
As it turns out, the key to Paris was not to do too much and not to move too fast. During this perfect day, I think we accomplished both perfectly.
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