Memories of the City of Light

A few days in Paris...what would you do?

We saw many of the famous sights such as the Musée du Louvre (above), 

l'arc de Triomphe (below) at the top of the Champs-Elysées...   

We walked and walked and I took loads of pictures...

thankfully my patient boyfriend didn't seem to mind!

Paris is such a photogenic city and the beautiful light coming through the clouds 

on most days we were there gave some of my photographs quite a magical quality.

We were lucky enough to be able to watch the Tour Eiffel do its twinkly 

sparkling at night from our hotel window too!

As my boyfriend had never been to Paris before, we opted to ascend 

the Eiffel Tower at night, which was pretty cool.

It's a great way to see the lights of the city.

We also managed to enjoy some of the café culture 

that France is so well known for...

I also enjoyed seeing some of the pretty Parisian architecture.

I noticed rather a lot of prehistoric creatures about the place 

(no complaints here though!)...

...Jurassic Paris!

So long, oh City of Light...I am certain we shall meet again!

P.S. If you click on any of the pictures, you can view the photographs at a larger size in a slideshow!

Dreaming of Paris

I am off to Paris on Tuesday! I can't quite put into words how happy and excited this makes me. It's truly one of my favourite cities to visit, for so many reasons.

I will be glad of a little change of scenery, time away from work and some precious quality time with my other half - it will be the first time I've actually been there with a romantic partner, and he has never visited the city before so I'm looking forward to showing him the sights.

If you've never been, I heartily recommend it - it's a place I would describe as having an almost magical quality about it. I recently watched the Tour de France's final foray up the Champs-Élysées... enough to send me off into a little daydream! As a child I visited the famous avenue and will always remember it because the trees which line the street were beautifully lit for Christmas.

It helps that I speak fairly good French, I suppose - well... at least I do when I'm not rusty! I am tempted to watch Amelie again (one of my favourite films of all time so I hardly need an excuse to watch it) to get my "French brain" in gear.

I have a sketchbook and some photographs from previous trips (including the ones featured in this blog post - they are from 2001 and shot on 35mm film so I had to *scan* my prints!) that I really love and treasure, so here's hoping I come back with a few new memories to cherish.

I'm only going for a handful of days but you can be sure I'll be aiming to make the most of it! Things I am looking forward to include: visiting a proper boulangerie, eating fresh crepes and lovely croque madame/monsieur(s), buying macarons, browsing the Parisian markets, checking out foodie treats "dans le supermarche," going for a wander along the river Seine and seeing the Tour d'Eiffel sparkling at night. I also dearly love the Musee d'Orsay and will be thrilled if I manage to return to the Orangerie to immerse myself in Monet.

I also hope to visit a couple of crafty/woolly shops while I'm there - 

so if you have any good recommendations for me, 

I'd love to hear them!