Je suis rentré New York
So, MaryAnn and I have returned from our wonderful trip to Paris!
Me and Notre Dame
MaryAnn on the Banks of the Seine
My new camera was great. I took 2,630 photos. Yes, you read that correctly. Eventually, over the next few weeks, I will be posting some of the best of them on this site, and many of them will be for sale.
Every street in Paris is a work of art, with its colorful markets, beautiful architecture and overflowing flower boxes.
Since the widespread building and construction of the 1970s, much of central Paris is pretty much protected from any development that would ruin it's character. Which is really ironic when one considers that between 1852 and 1870, Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann destroyed, without compunction, nearly all of the buildings and remains of medieval Paris in his grand scheme to modernize, beautify and -- above all -- sanitize Paris.
Boulevards from the Top of the Arc d' Triumph
Whatever the motivations behind the new urban scheme he introduced, it must be said that the wide, open boulevards of Paris, with their cafes and active street life, make it a profoundly liveable city. And there is still enough of the very old parts of Paris to make it intriguing and mysterious.
Narrow Streets in the Rain
We managed to cover about 6 miles a day; climbed both the Arc d'Triumph and Notre Dame (cheated and took the lift to the top of the Eiffel Tower). We saw most of the main parts of Paris that I needed to get to and found a few surprises along the way. Two important things i didn't get to: the Catacombes (closed for repairs -- it was supposed to open April 1st. it didn't.) and the Sewers (because I read the days and times incorrectly). Which means I must return to Paris for at least a four day weekend, hopefully before too long (sans research grant, sadly). But aside from a few disappointments (from the research point of view) there were also some serendpitous finds and surprises, delicious food, wonderful art and some high climbing, and great company in my best pal, MaryAnn Johanson (who blogged from Paris almost every day on movie related topics).
In any event, I had a wonderful time, got a lot more research done than I realized while I was there, and will be expanding (if not expounding ad naseum) on the trip over the coming weeks. Almost disappointingly, we did not encounter one rude French person -- unless you count the older woman who merely grunted at us in Montmartre when we said "bonjour" or the many cats who seemed quite above our company.
You are not my people; please move along
I live in a beautiful garden in Montmartre; I disdain your conversation
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Comments
Beautiful pictures!
Quelle dommage you have to return! (Well it's really a quelle dommage you won't have research grant funds to use for the trip.)
Posted by: Lanna Lee Maheux-Quinn | April 16, 2008 3:34 PM