Hmm, I Think I'll Go to Paris Next Week...

Yes.

Paris.

Next week.

I got a fantastic fare, and although I've been to Paris numerous times, I do not have clear memories of those trips. (See my earliest posts) Our family trips to France didn't leave us lingering in Paris for long anyway, as our family friends would take us to more "out of the way" places in their car, which was much more interesting in the long run. School trips to Paris involved a few jam-packed days of sight-seeing while incredibly jet-lagged. So yeah, I'm ready to make some new memories.

I am incredibly fortunate to be able to take this time, as my wonderful boss happens to be abroad herself. Before she left she handed me a stack of guide books and told me to have fun. How many 9-5ers can do this? I feel it's best I take advantage of my current flexible work situation while I can. So to Paris it is!

My last trip to Paris was for a few brief hours, and I tell that story in my earlier post, here. This locale is the impetus for my wanderlust, and I feel it appropriate that I return and pay homage.

If you know me and we've talked in the last few months, you'll know how incredibly charmed I was by the new Woody Allen movie, Midnight in Paris. As one of the few theatres playing this film in NYC happens to be down the street from where I work, I saw this movie 6 times. I was so courted by this darling tale that I just couldn't help returning to the cozy nearby picture house and swooning at lovely pictures of Paris and the sparkling gems in the movie. If you love art, literature, and glittering beauty, or if you've ever dreamed of dropping all the troubles of your modern life to jet off to a romantic place where to be poor is to be grateful for what you have, then go see this movie.  So, yeah, maybe this movie had a little something to do with my willingness to take another trip so soon!

With not much time to plan, I will mostly be relaxing and taking in the experience. I booked a well-reviewed hotel in Montmartre, in the red-light district, which looks to be more scandalous that dangerous. I have tentative plans to visit Versailles (I am a big Louis XIV fan. I'll bring my Louis action figure) and potentially Euro Disney! I might jot off to Reims or Giverny (have I been there, Mom?), but will most likely have to miss Mont Saint-Michel, even though it's one of my favorite places in the world. I'm currently looking into a champagne tour of some kind, as well.

Speaking of wine, apparently the third Thursday in France is the day that the Beaujolais Nouveau comes out, and Parisians, like excited Harry Potter fans, stay up Wednesday night until 12:01am to pop open bottles of this fruity, young and light red wine. I will leave just before this joyful occasion, but look forward to seeing the anticipation.

I have some more planning to be getting to, but look forward to more posts about maintaining style while traveling in cold weather, gluten free dining in Paris and updates on packing for this trip, since it will be different from London!

À bientôt fidèles lecteurs!

"The Wanderlust has got me... by the belly-aching fire" — Robert W. Service

There's always been a tiny seed there, residing primarily in close proximity to the tip of my heart, and which does, on occasion, migrate elsewhere (but always returns). Stubbornly dormant through plenty of opportunities to bloom, the seed finally got a chance at survival with an accidental foray into Paris for a day. That was the day new life began in this seed, this desire, this, polestar of curiosity to walk out into the world and see what's there.

That was the trip that made me an unintentional solo traveler, where I was presented with a choice, like so many things, and was able to choose from two options. To do... or to not do. I was traveling alone to Spain to meet with a large, pre-organized group of classmates and teachers, when my layover was suddenly rerouted to Paris (instead of Boston) and the layover lengthened to about 7 hours. So, to go in to Paris or not? Leave my safety net at the airport, where guards could keep me safe, where I knew I wouldn't miss my next flight, where McDonalds and vending machines and airport attendants so kindly anticipated my inability to speak French and therefore never offered an opportunity to practice? Or, should I ask the gentleman next to me to see his Paris guidebook, jot down directions from Charles de Gaulle to the Eiffel Tower and see what happens in the next 5 or 6 hours? With the possibility of pain au chocolate in my immediate future, I chose the latter and struck out for Paris. While the trip had it's negatives (a 'learning experience' with a group of pick-pockets, a frustrating inability to pass through train barriers correctly,  and relatively grim weather) it did, on the whole, give me the most exhilarating sense of adventure and freedom (perhaps all the greater for the negatives). I was loose, and wild, and at my own whim and discretion, with no premeditation on where to go or what to do. And so I wandered. 

And so I shall continue to...