55, bd. JOURDAN

Week six in Paris snuck up on me like an unexpected three-hour midterm exam, it sort of hit me after while, that even though I was spending every free minute running around the city, checking places off of my list of to-see sites, it was all passing me by with an incredible pace!

Though I have all of this travel ahead of me: Poland, (Prague), Lyon, Avignon, Nice, Barcelona … I feel like I need a capstone for my relationship with Paris. More and more, I’ve taken to just strolling the streets here, and trying to get an overall impression that would help to fuse all of my individual snapshots of the city.

Even though my Metro travel is unlimited with my Navigo card, and I rely on the trains more than I would like to admit — it is by walking that one realizes just how close everything is in the city. The density of the place is stunning, and having taken up walking to the Center in the mornings, now that Spring is around the corner, I’m surprised I haven’t done this sooner. I’m just simply sad that I won’t get to rent a bicycle here and experience the city in this way … ((the Vélib only accepts credit cards with an RFID chip, and registry online is only for those living in France, GB, Spain, and a couple of other EU countries)).

Alas, above is a photo from one of my recent wanderings from the Place de la Concorde, north and down the Boulevards of Haussmanian Paris. The day was rainy, but the sun would peek out momentarily to illuminate selected parts of the old apartment’s facades. In this instance, the beautiful golden statues crowning the Paris Opera were lit up with a glow that seemed almost itnernal to them. The photo above doesn’t even do it justice, it was quite a wonderful sight!

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