our neighborhood in paris

while in paris we stayed in the perfect little apartment. we booked it through airbnb which we would totally recommend. i wanted a centrally located place and this one was right on the seine in view of the two best art museums. we had so much fun exploring all the narrow streets around the apartment and found a lot of treasures.

paris when it sizzles

for a few days while in paris it was hot. while melting away one afternoon there was nothing to do but head to the paris plage, a makeshift beach along the seine. we listened to live music, watched people dance and play games, and cooled off in the misty water.

versailles

i think robert was disgusted by the extravagance of the monarchy, but i was imagining all the wonderful parties the space could hold and taking inspiration for my future home design.

i loved the gardens and marie antoinette's house the best. i loved the long pathways lined with rows of trees and horse pastures. i loved snacking on our packed lunch of baguettes, cheese, and candy. and i loved that after half a day we looked at each other, decided we'd had enough, and went back to the city to ride bikes, eat a wonderful dinner, and be happy that nether of us are sneaking extra-marital sex partners in a secret elevator.

paris opera

montmartre

one morning we metroed up the hill to montmartre and walked all around the neighborhood. i wanted to try all the bakeries, and shop in all the fabric and notion stores i found on rue d'orsel. but instead we wandered casually, window-shopping hand-in-hand. there was no need to carry a map or worry about getting lost; uphill is the sacre-coeur, downhill the center of paris.

le palais royal

heat wave. lasted for a few days while visiting paris.

during the hottest part of one of those days, we bought macaroons from piere herme and sat around the palais royal, waiting for the sun to get just a little lower before riding bikes somewhere else. we watched a man fishing for coins with a magnet-lure tied to a string (us coins aren't magnetic but euros are). we watched an old woman feeding birds and yelling at every child who tried to run to scare the birds into flight. people met and talked, and i felt like we were spying in on parisian locals in their own habitat. we watched this community until someone approached me and rattled off in french so quickly i could hardly understand a word. something about a sac she misplaced and whether i had seen it. we slipped away before our cover was blown and someone saw us for the tourists we really were.

on the streets of paris

the sacred in paris

la basilique du sacre coeur
la sainte-chapelle
cathedrale de notre dame de paris

honestly, the beauty was an overload. our eyes and our minds hurt with it. but when you're mentally exhausted there's more room for the heart. seeing the morning sun stream through the stained-glass of the saint-chapelle was beauty we could feel.

our favorite cathedrals were not the most famous, required no tickets, and had no queue. they were places of worship, but still so beautiful, as almost everything in paris is. two in particular:

eglise saint-eustache
eglise sainte-peirre de montmartre