City of Lights

J'adore Paris.

I've spent quite a bit of time in the City of Lights over the years, going way back to when I was fifteen years old and lived with a Parisian family for the summer. I can't claim to know it like a local, but I dare say that this city and I are much more than acquaintances. Paris will always pull at my heartstrings.

In November and December, I had the good fortune to spend eighteen days in Paris, over the course of two separate visits. The first trip was a solo writing retreat, during which I tucked myself away in the 6th arrondisement to take advantage of the momentum I'd gained writing my novel. By this point, we knew DS would be returning to work soon, so the moment was mine to seize! 

The second visit brought the entire family to Paris during New Year's week.

It came to pass that I was in Paris the night of the terrorist attacks on Friday, November 13. I'm not entitled to be melodramatic about this fact. Not when so many people experienced such loss. Yet, these events affected me deeply. I was scared, and remain skittish three months later. I've learned this is how it goes, as I also happened to live and work in Washington, D.C. on September 11, 2001. I still have irrational, but manageable, fears stemming from this experience (for example, low-flying planes make my stomach do an involuntary turn).

In the case of Paris, I was eating dinner alone at an outdoor café in the arrondisement adjacent to the one where the attacks occurred. When I put together the timeline in my head later that night, I realized that I had just finished eating and paid my bill as the attacks started. I then walked home across the Seine to my hotel in the 6th. Tons of restaurants and cafés line the small side street where my hotel was located, and they were packed with Friday-night revelers. I could barely make my way through all the people who had stepped outside with a glass of wine to smoke a cigarette. I stepped into the lobby, and received this text from my mom in the United States: "Are u home? Just heard of the terrorism in Paris." Fifteen minutes later, the street below was empty. The news was out, and the city was eerily quiet.

As stark as this memory is for me, and also the following day when I had to catch my scheduled train back to Amsterdam, what really stands out for me is the week leading up to Friday's tragedy. Most of those mornings I went for a run in Luxembourg Gardens, which was near my hotel. Every single one of those mornings I found myself running alongside a unit of sapeurs-pompiers (firefighters), who must train there on a regular basis. Ok, perhaps I wasn't running alongside them, and it was probably more that they ran laps around me, but we shared this moment in time in this beautiful palatial garden on several crisp autumn mornings. That Friday morning, I ran with them. That Friday night, they were called to action in a way they could have never imagined earlier that day. I had watched them run hard and sweat. They wore dark, long-sleeved tee shirts with sapeurs-pompiers written across the back. They laughed as they ran in pairs and small groups.

I'm brought to tears when I think of them. Every time. For some reason, it is the thought of these men and women that hurls this tragedy at me like a punch to the gut. It was that shared moment that made the events real to me. So much loss of life. So much need for heroes. Not just in Paris, but all over the world nowadays. Still, it's important but to keep living. Not allow fear to play with your head. It's why we went back to Paris, as planned, just one month later to celebrate the holidays.

I think sometimes it's best to let the silence do the talking. Here are some quiet photos from my fall and winter trips to Paris, most of which I took during my morning runs, starting at Le Jardin du Luxembourg. #cityoflight

Disney or Bust

Hanging out with LL and gang was definitely the highlight of our week in Paris over New Year's. We only wish SF and company could have been there with us.

These kids were the best of buds in Amsterdam, and while they now find themselves a world apart it was as if they'd seen each other yesterday. The nature of ex pat life means dear friends come and go, making reunions like this so much sweeter.

We capped off our reunion in Paris with a celebration at Disneyland on New Year's Eve.

Yep. We.did.that.

 The giant holiday Ferris wheel at the Place de la Concorde at the end of the Champs Élysées.

From the top!

 Now looking down at the Place de la Concorde and the Champs Élysées:

And back down again:

Our cup runneth over. The Teacup ride at Disney.

Dinner at the Blue Lagoon, overlooking the Pirates of the Caribbean ride:

At the end of the night, while the rest of our group secured a spot for the midnight fireworks, Miss A and I broke away for a ride on some flying rocket ships. Just the two of us. This little girl is her own person, but she and I do share an appreciation for a little down time after a stimulating day. I cherish these moments when she and I have the chance to recharge our batteries together.

It was all the New Year's celebration I needed.

Miss Posh

We're still not exactly sure how "Miss A" finessed her way into hosting two sleepovers at our hotel while we were visiting Paris New Year's week. It's hard enough scheduling these things in our normal life.

Happy for my little girl. She doesn't ask for much, and she had been craving this time to connect with a friend or two.

The little brothers of these two ladies knew a good thing when they saw it and spent the night together outside Paris.

I think I drew the longer straw. #fairtrade

Paris Snaps

In addition to our gorgeous day at Luxembourg Gardens, we hit a few other highlights while in Paris for three days with my mom. 

It's been a while since I've been to some of these key attractions, and it was great fun to take the high-speed train from Amsterdam and play host in my favorite city.

The Louvre was crowded and quick, but sometimes it's okay to enjoy what you can and check it off the bucket list.  I've been to the Louvre quite a few times, but for these three, it was great fun to actually see the Mona Lisa in person.  Check, check, check!!

Île de la Cité and Notre Dame . . . it was time to bore charm everyone with the differences between Gothic and Romanesque architecture. 

I love that I inadvertently captured a man praying in this picture of our crew in front of Notre Dame.

See the pointed arches of the doorways?  Gothic archicture.  In the pictures above, you can also see Notre Dame's flying buttresses, also classic Gothic.

There's a cute playground on the south side of the cathedral.  A great place to take a break with the kids.

Also on the Île de la Cité, the unparalleled glory and stained glass of Sainte-Chapelle, a royal medieval Gothic chapel.  If you ever find yourself in Paris, this is a must-do sweet spot.

Saint Germain des Pres is the oldest church in Paris, over a thousand years old.  It is the only remaining building of Romanesque architecture.  We had a memorable brunch at Les Deux Magots, which faces the church, and then we popped into the church for a visit, also made memorable as a service was in process.  The district around the church is over FIFTEEN centuries old, and a favorite spot of the first kings of France.  Later, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Picasso and others would sit at the cafes surrounding the church and write their masterpieces.

I love the scale of Abby (watching the service, mesmerized) against the soaring height of the transept.

See those rounded archways along each side of the nave?  Tell-tale Romanesque architecture.

A moonlit trip down the Seine:

We had lots of good meals while in Paris (mais bien sûr), but it was particularly fun to take my mom to Le Grand Colbert, where scenes from the movie Something's Got to Give were filmed.  I knew she liked the movie a lot, and the restaurant is one of the oldest, classic, and still independently-owned Parisian brasseries remaining.

Just for fun, here's the clip from the movie!

Bon appétit!