indulgent fountains

The reflections on the water of the Medici Fountain in Paris is a giant painting palette. All the autumn colours have been swirled around, broken down, and refracted. The swimming ducks contribute to the confusion. They complicate the patterns even more with the circular waves they leave in their wake. The entire thing is a giant Impressionist painting rolled into a kaleidoscope that changes almost every second. I woke up stupidly early this Thursday morning in New Zealand and thought of being here two autumns ago.  

au revoir paris and spinning like tops in london

Day 68 - Paris to London on the Eurostar, Clissold Park, South Bank, Oxford Circus Christmas Lights, Tommi's Burger Joint

We've coined the day when you get from country to country "Transit Day". It's basically carte blanche to take no photos and do as little as possible when you land at your destination. I feel a little heartbroken to be saying goodbye to our little attic apartment, our bakery where we stand in line with the locals for our baguette every morning, and our cafe across the road. Paris is one of the few places where, when I head out the front door on the day I'm leaving, I turn to look back.

take two of a Velib bike ride along the Seine and Parisian fights over raclette

Day 67 - another Sunday bike ride along the Seine, Laduree, raclette sandwiches at the Christmas market

After our disastrous Sunday bike ride last week, I wake up this Sunday morning - lies - more like Sunday afternoon - and, inexplicably, I want to do it all again. Rob has to check several times that I haven't lost my mind. But no, I'm sure. I know what to do now and what to expect. 

ravioli/dumpling fever in Belleville

Day 66 - Back to the Canal, Belleville Park, down Belleville, Place de la Republique

We've cut through the Canal again and this time gone up the hill to seek out a view of Paris from the top of Belleville Park. This seems to be the grittier side of Paris, full of halal meat joints, cheap shoe stores, and apartment blocks from the 70s. But even here, there's a pretty carousel for the kids to ride and a view of the Eiffel Tower to enjoy on their daily ascent down the road.

locks for canals and locks on bridges

Day 65 Canal St Martin

The canals of St Martin are revealed to us and I'm shockingly underwhelmed. I've been wanting to visit since Amelie skipped rocks to an almost hallucinatorily gorgeous Yann Tiersen soundtrack. Turns out, Amelie didn't heed the warning signs preventing people from getting near the locks. My Amelie shot is well out of my reach.

heathens ruining paris in south pigalle and in les halles malls

Day 62-64 - South Pigalle, Sacre Coeur, Montmartre, Trocadero, Musee Marmottan Monet, Les Halles, Chatelet metro, Pompidou Centre

A year a little bit ago, the New York Times ran an article entitled "How Hipsters Ruined Paris". Thomas Chatterton Williams put the ninth arrondisement, or South Pigalle, on the bench and played judge and jury on the characteristics of this particular neighbourhood. He complains about "the banal globalization of hipster good taste".

natural histories and unnaturally expensive vintage

Day 61 - Jardin des Plantes, high-class taxidermy in the Grand Gallery of Evolution, silent stampedes of skeletons in the Gallery of Comparative Anatomy and Paleontology, Happy Noodles, Happy pastries, overpriced vintage, the post office in Hotel de Ville and rainy Paris

It was Polaroids like these that made me want to seek out rooms full of bones. Then, I read Rebecca Stott's The Coral Thief, set in Jardin des Plantes in the late 1800s and I was done for. I needed to go back to Paris and investigate. A few days ago, we were walking around the perimeter of the museums situated in the Jardin des Plantes. In a window, set high above street level, we glimpsed the curve of a skeleton spine rising and falling. Rob pointed and said, "I want to go there!" and I was reminded instantly of that Polaroid.

bad hot dogs for lunch and a noob on a Paris Velib bike

Day 60 - a hair-rasing experience from the 5th, through the Ile de la Cite, along the Seine, and ending at the Tuileries, no room at the in at the Grand Palais, Monet's and Laurencin's at Orangerie and the Jeu de Paume, saved by Saines Saveurs

I hijack Rob's carefully planned metro itinerary to get to the Grand Palais, Orangerie and the Jeu de Paume. He's booked us bikes on Paris Velib, just in case. I think back to Versailles, sailing along the fountains, the shadows of tree trunks flickering past us. I add this memory to Paris Respire and decide it's a good idea to ride our Velib bikes to Notre Dame, along the Seine, and stop at the Tuileries. We can even see the Velib stand from our window. "There's only 3 left," shouts Rob. He's so excited about getting onto the bikes that only later, he realises there's no CF card in the camera. We're on our phone cameras for the rest of the day.

storybook bread and a flea market

Day 59-60 - Port de Vanves and Poilane

The Port de Vanves flea market is like a sidewalk Galeries Lafayette but the stallholders are all drinking wine from the back of their vans. Two of them ask where we're from, find out we're from New Zealand, and get very excited. Suddenly, we're in the outskirts of Paris watching two men hooting with laughter, doing the haka, and commenting about how our rugby team is full of "big men". The stallholders don't even need to see each other to carry on a conversation. They'll just shout at each other between their shops and then break out into bawdy laughter. The closer we get to lunchtime, the drunker everyone gets. 

finding my religieuse at Fauchon and bodybagged statues at Versailles

Day 57-58 - fancy ladies and their bedrooms in Versailles, the Grand Magasins, and Fauchon

Place de la Concorde always stops me in my tracks. Perhaps it's the sudden buzz of cars after walking through the genteel Tuileries. Or maybe it's the mash of the Eiffel Tower on your left, the barrel of the Champs Elysees culminating in the Arc de Triomphe, those grand fountains, and that strange Egyptian obelisk like a giant exclamation mark. Your eye skips through all of them, trying to make sense of this schizophrenic jostling of styles and eras. Maybe, it's also because I never get past the waffle and crepe stand just outside the Tuileries gates so I'm always on the corner, chewing through my crepe with creme de marron. Hundreds of years ago, the Revolutionaries erected their guillotine and beheaded their former King and Queen at Place de la Concorde. 

day and night at the eiffel tower

Day 55-56 - hanging with gargoyles in the Notre Dame, getting scammed in the Tuileries, another Kimye wedding destination and two visits to the Eiffel Tower 

The bouquinistes lined up along the River Seine, near the Notre Dame, are picture perfect this autumn morning. And don't they know it. Lots have a "No Photo" sign but Rob's a rebel. One guy has thrown all his stock into a heap, causing a mille feuille of crumbly brown paper that threatens to burst onto the sidewalk. He's got one of those aggressive "NO PHOTOS" sign. Everyone must stop and take one. It's less shop; more hoarder. A clown walks towards me and says something in jaunty French. I scream in his face, shoo him away, and shout "I hate clowns!"

a parisian attic apartment

Day 54 - the latin quarter, jardin du luxembourg

We're in another brilliant Air BnB apartment; this time in the Latin Quarter of Paris, on the attic floor of a Tudor building. It's a tiny studio and every little thing has it's place. I have to hang my bananas on a hook along the timber beams. 

Epic Blogger Meet Up in Paris

Naomi and I met at Gare du Nord in Paris. I knew her right away from her photos and the gorgeous pink flower in her hair. She is a goddess and such fun in person. She made, what would have been a rather lonely time in Paris by myself, sparkly, charming, whimsical, and hilarious. Together, we had huge lunches and dinners, rode two carousels (one of which was the one featured in the movie Amelie), one large ferris wheel, went up the Eiffel Tower, and laughed at all the novelty tourist crap on sale everywhere. We drank one of the strongest caiparanhas in the world, weathered rude French waiters, made fun of tourists wearing berets, and hacked at a cheap bottle of chablis with a table knife (being too scared to ask the hotel for a bottle opener). Naomi - you're the best!

To see Naomi's gorgeous gorgeous pictures of our time in Paris, visit her Flickr here.





♥ Eiffel Tower, Jardin Tuileries, Jardin des Plantes, Les Halles, Montmartre ♥

one city of love travelled alone

While waiting for the overnight train from Venice to Paris, I met a Korean exchange student who was on her way to Slovakia. She was 21, living in Paris, and talked wistfully of the boyfriend she had left in Seoul. She told me that in all her time in Paris, she had tried to avoid taking an accidental glance at the Eiffel Tower. She had yet to visit it up close. I asked why. She simply said it was something she wanted to see with somebody she loved.

One night later, I wandered through the Place Vendome, stumbling accidentally into a side entrance into the Jardin des Tuileries. The sun was setting purple in the sky. The Eiffel tower glimmered in the distance. A golden carousel glowed amidst the dark branches of the bare trees and the blankets of snow. An enormous ferris wheel glittering icy light revolved in the air. It was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen in my life. In that moment, I understand that girl and her refusal to see the Eiffel Tower alone. After two weeks of travelling by myself, I felt bereft. There seemed little point in seeing something so breathtaking without being able to share it with somebody else. Others are there to remind you that the sight you see and the things you feel are real. Beautiful things are meant to be shared. Without others, what you saw could almost have been just a dream.

♥ The Eiffel Tower from the Jardin des Tuileries ♥ Grande Pyramide, Louvre Museum ♥ Rue de Castiglione ♥

♥ Fontainebleau Chateau and Gardens ♥

♥ Art in the Musee D'Orsay and Musee Rodin ♥ The River Seine ♥