Paris is my favourite city. It has everything that I love: art galleries, French, unpasturised cheese, a vast metro system that just works and so on. That said my first visit was underwhelming. I was 16 and on a French exchange, which had 40 students in Paris for 3 days before spending nearly 3 weeks in Tours, France with host families (the latter is a whole other story!).
We landed in the morning and hit the ground running. Except we didn't. I had dreamt about visiting Paris for years - to climb the Eiffel Tower, visit the Louvre, eat amazing food. So what did 40 16 year olds from Canada do in April 2000? We looked at the Eiffel Tower, we didn't go to a single museum, we were left to shop in two different areas for 2 hours each (once along the Champs Elysees, the other in the 9iem near The Opera House/Printemps Department Store), we went on a boat cruise along the Seine during a torrential downpour, and...AND to this day I think that this is my mother's favourite story about the whole thing...we were forced (yes, you read that right) to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe. Nothing says I'm in Paris! like hamburgers, fries and Coke.
I needed to go back and do it right. So I did in June 2003. I spent 9 glorious days doing as much as I possibly could. I went up the Eiffel Tower. I spent a day in the Louvre and only saw 1/4 of it. I had a "museum Tuesday" - I visited the Musee de Rodin, Musee D'Orsay and Les Invalides in one day. I ate savoury crepes with other travellers at a tiny cafe near our hostel. I sat outside Notre Dame, watching people and writing in my journal. I took the RER out to Versailles. I didn't(?) touch bones in the Catacombs. I went to Sacre Couer and admired the view. I went to the Picasso Museum. I sat in the Jardin des Tuileries and read my favourite book. I admired L'Arc de Triomphe. I wandered along the Seine, stopping occasionally to write in my journal and sometimes just to take it all in.
In August 2004 my then-boyfriend, now-husband, took me to Paris for 2 days. We went up the Eiffel Tower together. We sat in cafes and drank espresso. I took him to Musee de Rodin (my favourite, by the way). We wandered the streets. And then I didn't get to Paris again until 2011.
We had recently given up trying for a third baby. Over a year, no luck. So I was thrilled when my husband called from work on a Thursday and said: "Want to go to Paris this weekend?" The advantages of living 10 minutes from the EuroTunnel were never more clear. We booked a 3:30am train, which meant we had to wake up at 1:50am. We pulled the 2 boys out of bed, caught our train and drove to Versailles - arriving early enough to park in the parking lot right next to the entry gate (a big feat, I swear!). We then drove to our hotel, parked the car, checked in and set off for the afternoon. We showed our boys L'Arc de Triomphe, we walked down the Champs Elysees, we ate crepes, the boys rode on a carousel next to the Seine. The next day we chose to take the stairs up the Eiffel Tower - the queue was shorter, the admission price was cheaper and, hey, our kids got a great story to tell. 700+ steps later, we had two very proud boys on our hands. We went to Notre Dame. We went to the Centre du Pompidou. And we drove home, feeling as though we had packed more into 36 hours than we thought possible (more than that first trip to Paris in 2000 at any rate!).
There are still things I haven't seen in Paris that I want to visit. Lots, actually. When people tell me that they're done with Paris, I don't get it. Especially when it's after a very short period of time. 4 continents, endless amazing cities (NYC, Sydney, Vancouver, London, Rome, LA, Melbourne, Singapore, etc - all to come) and Paris is still, always, my favourite.
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