Ah, we'll always have Paris.

It's been a week since I have been home from Paris and sometimes it seems like it's been a month but if I really think hard and close my eyes and click my heels together, I feel like there's no place like Paris, there's no place like Paris......  oh wait!  That's from another movie!  But seriously, there is no place like Paris. 

In the end, Paris did not disappoint, Paris, for me, has never disappointed. Someone asked me why I would waste two days flying, one there and one back, to spend a week in Paris. They said "it's so far for just a few days."  My response was "I would go for five days, so eight is just fine. It's not too far for a place I love."  And it is true. For whatever reasons, I love Paris. I love the busy streets, the noise that goes on all night long if you sleep with windows open and I love the sound of heels on the streets in the middle of the night with those open windows. I love the smell of baking bread mixed with the smell of diesel fumes, the smell of stinky cheeses as you walk by a fromagerie. I love the tiny parks, nestled randomly around the city, small miniature islands of peace right off a large boulevard.  I love the outdoor cafes, the claiming of a table for an hour for the price of a coffee, just to watch people walk by.  I love not knowing enough of the language to be able to eavesdrop and thus getting to feel like I am living in a foreign city, where  no one knows my thoughts just as I don't know their conversations. 

Going to Paris reminded me of all of the above and so much more. It reminded me that THIS IS WHAT I LOVE TO DO: TRAVEL.  It reminded me that it is only a plane ticket away, that the plane ticket is just some money, that the money is the reason I work and that the work is just a tool to get that money.  It reminded me that I need to travel more, now, while I can, while I can still maneuver the labyrinth that the travel world has now become: the airports, the airplanes, customs, more airports, public transportation, all of it. At some point I will be too old.  I figure I have a good ten years, maybe more, and this trip to Paris reminded me that I need to take more and more trips.  Damn the money, damn the expense. This is life.  This is my life. I need to travel.

Wow, the above is a bit wordy, but it is important to say these things in order to make them solid.  Well, it's important to me, at least, to say them. 

Paris was so much fun.  As I might have already said, Tom and I end up laughing a lot.  We have the same silly and sick sense of humor, which is necessary at times. We both like to hunker down and read for a couple of hours but we are both always ready to go out and do something. Anything. Tom is une bonne copain du voyage, as the French say.  A good traveling companion, and more than that, he is a good friend. We hadn't traveled together in almost ten years, it was nice to be back in a foreign city with him.

A few photos.  There are many covered passage ways in Paris. This is in one. 

A coyote with wings and a nice necklace.

                          Flower stall.  Duh. 

                     A cool old French woman. She was having her afternoon wine and cigarette.  I love her look of disdain.  So French. 

More photos will follow. Thank you for following along. Bon nuit.

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