Tuesday, May 12, 2015
What comes is better than what came before...
Title credit to Cat Power, I Found a Reason. Leaving old loves for new. Then Sallie Ford sang my heart with her song Paris. I think I could talk for days about Paris, but let me back track a bit....
I arrived in Nottingham from Glasgow on Thursday, May 7. Meeting up with an old beau/current mate (the English way!), I had one night and day to venture through his town. To his credit, Adrian is and has been a better host than I, but he IS a bartender. We had delicious tapas for dinner and then quite the romp from bar to bar, where he knew lots of local folks. There was a place outside one of the bars where "hard" rappers apparently get their pictures taken, so when we found it locked I tried my best to be "hard." I bit the lock. You be the judge.
The following day we grabbed a coffee and fruit on a small walk to drop of my luggage for the day. Next stop, best fish n' chips in town at George's complete with Scottish haddock, mushy peas (hahaha) and curry chip (fry) sauce. Outstanding meal. We strolled to the Nottingham Castle, Robin Hood statue (yes, THAT Nottingham!), and the oldest inn in England. Rounded out the day with a stop at the Kitty Cafe, which was kind of a let down (I thought I'd be covered in kittens), but at least Adrian knows where to pick up ladies now!;)
He kindly saw me off at the train station, and I was off to Paris! (drop the "s"). I'm going to let my pictures do most of the talking about Paris. This is only about half, and I don't think a lifetime would be enough to photograph all the beautiful things I saw. Honestly, I went in skeptically, expecting pretentious people and expensive, too rich food, but what I found...well, je t'aime Paris.
The slight emptiness and homesickness I felt leaving a friend to go on my own again was unexpectedly replaced, filled up, by this new place. That's the thing about traveling on your own, you let the city speak to you. No plans really, no conversations for consensus, just let your feet do the walking and your senses lead them to what is speaking. Below are pictures from my walk along the river Seine...the Eiffel Tower, several bridges including the dazzling Alexandre III, and the one where I placed my lock, the Louvre (some of the artwork I loved, some was just funny, guess which is which and ask if you want the story), a salami, fromage, and cornichon sandwich lunch in the Tuileries Garden, Notre Dame, beer and postcard writing in Ile Saint-Louis (where I watched a pedicab driver wobble and zig zig to make his tiny passenger giggle:), the Pompidou where I sat for a characature, a lovely festival with free concert I came across, and this morning on my way out of town, Sacre-Coeur and the view of Paris atop its hill.
My sister was waiting at the Kaiserslautern train station for me this afternoon, and I'm here with family for two more days before departure to Portland. What a whirlwind. Thanks for being a part of it.
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