Paris is a city for everyone. There is no ending when one starts talking about Paris, because it has the world within it and more. I myself went from the belief that Paris was overrated to absolute love to the City of Light. And if Paris has no end, like Hemingway said, it is also too great for beginnings. This is why I can’t think where I should start this post.
Life generally starts early in Paris, at the bakeries, boulangeries and cafés, where the Parisians sit down to have their coffee and pain-au-chocolat (a must have, if you ever go there) and read their newspapers or books. The city is a living being and its people and the toursits walking up and down the streets are the blood running through its veins. Paris throbs, Paris is full of life.
For me, Paris is (also) the city of cafés and good cheese. Try this: go to google maps and search for “cafés in Paris.” *Spoiler alert!* Here is the search result:
As for good cheese, even the average cheese you find in any supermarket is already greater than in most countries I’ve been to. But if you like cheese as I do, you may want to go to Rue Cler and visit the Fromagerie there. I was bewildered when I entered the shop and beheld more different kinds of cheese than I could have ever fathomed! Of course I bought a few of them and went for a pic-nic at Trocadéro Square, by a lovely carroussel, while I gazed at the metallic wonder that is the Eiffel Tower (you can see my happy face then on my Bio page). This is what Paris is all about: you live slow and you enjoy every minute of it.
If you got curious about the fromagerie, here’s the map to Rue Cler, where, by the way, you find many other dainties (there is a great patisserie there)!
Now, of course this is but a tiny little portion of the City of Light: the portion I did in the first few hours at the very first time I went there. Afterwards, I did what everyone should do in Paris: stroll, or, as the Parisians say, flanner. You are sure to find in every corner a new beauty, a new lovely place, somewhere you will remember and long to be at forever.
This is Paris: the City of Light, the City of Wonders, the City of Dreams.
They believe in enjoying life and don’t you think they’re right? If you want to enjoy yourself properly you must go to Paris.
– Ignatius Gallaher (Dubliners, by James Joyce)
This post is in response to the comments left by Isabelle on my previous post “All remembrance of things past is fiction.” Please, everyone, challenge me too!