Paris... je t'aime!

After my third visit to Paris I'm still not satisfied.  This city just keeps me wanting to go back.  It's my favourite city, even more than Prague I think.  Prague is so beautiful and a great destination, but I find that Paris has so much more to see.  You could spend days upon days there and still just have scratched the surface.  Some people don't like Paris, complaining that it's too dirty or expensive, but to me it's a beautiful place that still intrigues me.  There are so many diverse neighbourhoods of the city and so many brilliant museums, cathedrals, and tourist attractions.  Yes, it can be expensive, but if you look hard enough you can find reasonable options for food and accommodations.

This time around we stayed in the Latin Quarter near Place Saint-Michel and Notre Dame, which is a touristy area but is also known for being home to many university students.  I really liked this area of the city, as we were within close walking distance to many restaurants and also to the Seine river which we loved walking along.  The weather in Paris was quite mild when we were there.  It felt more like fall weather than winter time.  Due to the lovely weather, we walked almost everywhere.  We could have easily hopped on a metro, but with all the rich foods we were eating on the trip, it was great exercise to walk around, and a nicer way to see the city.

One place that I've been meaning to visit was le Musée d'Orsay, a beautiful art museum which used to be a train station.  It's much smaller than the Louvre, but you can easily spend all day there.  My favourite thing there was the Impressionist paintings.  I got to see some of my favourite Monet paintings in person.  There were also a number of sculptures that we enjoyed by a French sculptor named Pompon.  The biggest one he had was a huge polar bear, entitled "L'ours blanc."  The museum has a beautiful view of the Seine and Montmartre in the distance, where many of the Impressionist painters lived.

One of our favourite things we've ever done in Paris was to go up l'Arc de Triomphe to see an amazing view of Paris.  We didn't go up there this time around, but we did visit l'Avenue des Champs-Élysées and the Christmas market there.  It was huge, but it didn't have the traditional Christmas feel like other Christmas markets in Europe have.  There was also a Christmas market right near the Eiffel Tower.  My favourite Christmas market is still the one in Prague, but Budapest impressed me a lot as well.  Maybe some of the lack of Christmas spirit stemmed from the recent tragedy in Paris.  After the bombings, security was on high alert.  We saw lots of police around the city, and at many tourist sites there were bag checks and police dogs.  At the airport we saw guards with huge guns, and I felt a bit nervous to be travelling there so soon after the bombings, but I admire the people of Paris for being so resilient and having the courage to move on and say that they are not afraid to live their lives.

On Christmas day we went to Montmartre for a Christmas mass in the morning.  The last time we visited Paris, we stayed in the Montmartre area.  I love that part of the city even though it's a bit far from the main attractions and requires public transportation to get there.  I love wandering around the streets there!  The view on Christmas morning of the city quiet below us was beautiful.

Another new place we visited in Paris on this trip was les Jardins du Luxembourg.  This places was very close to our hotel.  We visited the park on a sunny day and enjoyed watching the birds and people while sitting on the chairs near the pond there.  If I lived in Paris I'd go to that park all the time!

We also visited la Sainte-Chapelle which was a beautiful chapel close to Notre Dame.  It is famous for its stained glass windows.  People often try to time their visits perfectly so that they can get the sunlight shining through the windows at the right time.  We visited on a day with some sun and it was a beautiful place.

Over the two previous visits I've made to Paris, I've gotten photos of the Eiffel Tower from a range of viewpoints.  This time we went to Trocadero to get a new view, and it was pretty spectacular.  There was a huge crowd of protesters and a bunch of construction going on at the time we were there, but it didn't stop us from enjoying our time and getting some lovely pics.  I'll never forget the first time I saw the Eiffel Tower... it will stay with me forever!  Views of la tour Eiffel never get old for me. 

Even after three visits I still feel there is so much more to see of Paris.  I feel a bit of sadness looking back on this trip, as I still wish I could be there!  Until next time...