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Paris: a city that’s , surprisingly, pretty much as good as people say it is.

My sister Cassie and I got a last-minute deal on air and hotel for seven days in Paris at the end of March, and we jumped on it.  While we were there, the sun shone every day in a picture-perfect blue sky, the temperature stayed steadily around the 18C mark, the flowers were blooming and the grass was green.  We walked or took the Metro everywhere, saw most of the things we wanted to see, and really packed our days full of some of the best things that the city has to offer visitors.  I found the people of Paris generally very forbearing, responding to my pathetic sentence construction and terrible accent with cheerfulness.

I also found the city quite inspiring; from an urban design standpoint, it’s wonderful (they really know how to create public spaces), and from an art history standpoint, it’s a feast, particularly in Montmartre, where we were staying.  Though I’ve only come ’round to the Impressionists’ work lately, I’ve always had a great deal of respect for them, and to walk in their footsteps and see their works in person was a powerful thing.

I’m never much of one to write up my adventures right after I’ve had them, but I can recommend some great places & resources.
We skipped the Louvre; I know it’s awesome, but I feel like the scope is too overwhelming for our first trip, when there were lots of other things we wanted to see and do. Read the rest of this entry »