Why I Love Paris

I am absolutely enamored with the city right now. Here's why:

I woke up this morning at just past six and I wanted to walk along the Seine. The sun was up high enough that the tops of the buildings were white-gold but the doorways and the sidewalks were all still gray. When I reached the river the light reflected off of the water so brightly that I couldn’t look at it directly, so I didn’t, and instead I looked at the leaves of the trees that grow in a perfectly straight row along the bank and I tried to pretend that I was out in the country somewhere and it wasn’t difficult. I walked in the direction of Notre-Dame, and on the left side of the riverbank the light filtered through the leaves and wasn’t too glaring.

When I reached Tuilleries I first walked passed it but then I turned around and waited at the crosswalk to cross the street. A man with a camera said something to me in French but I didn’t understand and so I ignored him. I crossed the street and there was a blue door at street level that looked as though it wasn’t supposed to be open but it was. I walked through it and up the stairs and around the bushes and there was Rodin’s The Kiss. Since nobody was there I put my hands on top of first the woman’s hands and then the man’s hands and tried to imagine how Rodin must have felt when his hands were on top of theirs too.

I walked all the way down to the Notre-Dame and the Ile St. Louis and then I turned left onto a sidestreet and walked up to the Centre Georges-Pompidou. I sat on a bench next to a fountain for awhile and read my book, and then I took the metro back to this hotel.

I love Paris because you can stumble upon Rodin's The Kiss. I love Paris because when it's one o'clock and you're hungry and you go to a little restaurant just around the corner the woman who's working there smiles and brings you half a carafe of good white wine. I love Paris because she chats with you and when you finish your salade and order a nutella crepe she nods approvingly (What kind of a lunch is a salade anyway?).

Tomorrow my friend Anna arrives, and soon we'll take the train together to Madrid. Updates to come!