Why are you so beautiful?
Why don’t I live there?
Why do I have a gluten intolerance that prevented me from partaking in your baguettes, croissants, and pain au chocolat?
Why did I have a cold when I was visiting?
Will always said he would take me to Paris, and he finally did after 11 years. We were only there for two days, but I will definitely be back.
We took the Eurostar from St. Pancras station to Gare du Nord on the evening of a day of French national strike. We didn’t have any problems getting a taxi to our hotel though.
Where our initials in (fake) rose petals were on the bed: 
Awww. After we stopped laughing, we took them off.
We were staying in the chambre à lettres room of the Apostrophe Hotel, a tiny 16-room boutique hotel in the Montparnasse area. I was hoping for the music room, but hey, it was a great little hotel. 
It doesn’t show in this photo, but the curtains were printed with the deaf-mute alphabet.
It was pretty late when we got there, but I went straight for the soaker tub. 
I have serious tub envy. I wanted to take it home, but sadly it wouldn’t fit in my suitcase.
But we weren’t there to spend our time in a hotel. The next day, despite my head cold, we went out to see the city. The weather was beautiful again—we had sun and blue sky for two days.
In the Montparnasse area, near our hotel.
Notre-Dame de Paris. Amazing that this has stood since the 13th century, when it was completed after 200 years.
In the Latin quarter
Musée des Beaux Arts, formerly a train station
La Seine (any morning cloud was completely gone by then)
“Oh man, not so fresh…”
Will’s favourite statue in the Tuileries Garden. “Oh crap, I forgot my pants and I have a tiny penis…”
I personally preferred the dogs running around the lawn at the Louvre. 
The Louvre – we didn’t go in because we didn’t have time
For some reason, Will was taken by Paris streetlights.
We stumbled upon Canada Place.
General Lafayette
The back of Notre Dame, from the Bateau-Mouche. It reminded me of the scene from Before Sunset where Céline and Jesse are sitting on a boat and Jesse tells the story about how German soldiers wired Notre Dame to explode, but the one who was charged with flipping the switch couldn’t do it because of how beautiful it was in there. Every time I watch that movie on TV, Will comes in at that scene (and only that scene) and tells me that historically that’s not quite right.
Sitting by the Seine on a gorgeous fall day. I’d personally be afraid of falling into the Seine, but what I wouldn’t give to be there right now…
Not a famous landmark by any means.
Under the Eiffel Tower
The traffic around “l’Étoile” at l’Arc du Triomphe – totally insane
l’Arc du Triomphe
Église Ste-Eustache
At Jardin du Luxembourg, where the flowers were still in full bloom.
Despite not being able to eat the food that Paris is famous for, I still ate well. We had Vietnamese in the Latin Quarter one lunch (I sampled Vietnamese in my travels and found that my favourite is still here in Toronto), a late-night bistro, and thanks to a recommendation by pastry chef/cookbook author David Lebovitz living the sweet life in Paris, we ate at Le Louchébem in Les Halles where I had a half roasted black-footed chicken with delicious haricots verts and pommes sautés. (It was so much food, I ended up skipping dinner and having a container of pineapple from M&S Food back in London instead.)
I completely fell in love with the city. Paris, I will see you again soon. And I’ll spend more time.
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