Honeymoon in Paris

It's our first day in Paris today! How excited we are--especially for me, being in my dream city for the first time in my life. It's like consummating my love for the City of Light after 18 years of longing.

A little more than two hours of flight brought us here to this magical city. The abundance of beautiful things, and the aesthetics of the French just overwhelmed our senses. I take in everything with great excitement. All my senses are constantly being stimualted, and suddenly I can breathe again! Finally, we've left the pollen-filled Sweden. We have left the boring people there, who love to control everything. And we have momentarily left a society that sorely lacks variety and creativity. Here, the creativity of people is just explosive. They are so full of life, to the point of being exhibitionists. But it is a kind of charming self-confidence they have.

The greatest pleasure for me and Durox is that we can suddenly speak French again. It came to us so naturally as we listen to the French people talk. The ability to pick up the language surprised us both. And we found the Parisians very very nice and polite--contrary to stereotype. They answered our questions in a helpful manner and many of them even chatted with us at length. The first one we chatted with was a train conductor we met on our way from the airport to the city. We asked him how much people got fined for not having paid for the ticket. He said 30 euro (half of what Stockholmers pay). Then we started chatting for a while and he told us he had been to Norway and how everything was so expensive there.

We came to our hotel after a long-winded trip in the métro. Our receptionist, Riddar, gave us a warm welcome and introduction. He laughed when I asked about the availability of a stove here when I used the word "feu" (fire)! He asked if I wanted to grill something, ha ha! Despite the wrong choice of word, I managed to make myself understood and he was very surprised that Fredrik and I can speak French, even more surprised that I learned French in Hong Kong and the U.S. He's so friendly that we could just keep chatting without end.



Then we went out to the street and had a cup of coffeee around the corner while enjoying some sunshine. We then strolled along Boulevard Saint Germain and within five minutes, arrived at the River Seine. Notre Dame de Paris showed up in front of us in its majestic Gothic glamour. The façade has been cleaned so it looks very fresh. From l'île de la Cité we walked along the Seine and saw a gay couple making out on the lower level. After a while we came to St. Michel, an intersection bustling with all kinds of activities. Lots and lots of shops and cafés line the busy streets here.

Walking along Boulevard St. Germaine means you'd never get bored. There is so much to see in the shop windows all the time--even when the shops are closed. And many shops are open till at least 7 or 8 p.m. Not far away is Odéon, where the pulse on the streets intensifies to a higher level.



Very soon we came to the area around the medieval church, Saint-Germain-des-Près, and two famous cafés where French and American intellectuals in the second half of the 19th century and early 20th century used to hang out. Café des Deux Magots and Café de Flore. This whole area just smells of literary and artistic history!

By this time we were starving and I wanted to have a bite at Brasserie Lipp, Hemingway's favorite steak place. But Durox insisted that we walk further in search of a cheaper place, so we stopped by a restaurant called l'Auberge de St. Germain. The food turned out to be tasteless, the French fries not even crispy! Greatly disappointed, we hurriedly paid the unjustifiable 40 euro and left.

Luckily, high-quality restaurants and cafés aren't difficult to find in Paris. We decided to "wash" our bad taste away by haivng a cup of café vennois and sharing a crème brûlée at the beautiful art-deco style Relais Bistro. They played disco music from the 70s and we saw waiters swinging their bodies to the melodies while balancing heavy trays on their palms. Frivolous, flirtatious, and fun!

After a delightful dessert, we were glad that the poor dinner was a reduced to a distant memory and we started to stroll back to our hotel. On the way back, we passed by a huge bookstore that was open way past 11 p.m. Durox searched and found one of his favorite childhood comic series there. I was amazed at the gigantic selection of comic productions, including erotic ones.

Before we headed back to the hotel, we bought a bottle of chilled Sauternes wine from a small grocery store and celebrated our first day in Paris in our tiny but cozy room.

To see the rest of our trip in photos, visit:
Paris Photo Album
To read my travel reviews of Paris, visit:
Paris Reviews