Paris, Je t’aime!

You know those places? The ones that while flipping through your school books as a child, you dream of being in the pictures. Your mind daydreams—while you should be soaking up Social Studies—of the day you will be roaming the streets of that “place”. You imagine what smells may be wafting through the air, how the people dress and where the best chocolate shops are. (Ok, maybe the whole chocolate shop thing is just something I do.) Well that place for me has always been PARIS.

The Eiffel Tower wielding, romantic Seine strolling, sometimes snotty-nosed peopled… Paris. As far as expectations are concerned, the bar was set really high for the City of Light.

It’s a funny thing, expectations while traveling. It is almost impossible not to fantasize about what the next destination holds for us, yet I feel like most of those expectations are usually dashed upon arrival. It doesn’t matter how amazing (insert a city’s name here) is, it will never live up to the grandiose picture that is in your minds eye. The monument will always be smaller and the ocean a little less blue than expected.

We had an epiphany while at our first house-sit. After reading a posts on travel expectation by a blogger we follow, Nomadic Matt. (To see the post click here.) He put into words what we were unable to figure out for ourselves in the beginning; our expectations were killing the actual experiences we could have had. We had to stop all the hour-long “I wonder” conversations and stay in the present. If you have no expectations then there’s no way to be let down; experiences happen organically.

Just so you know though, Paris, for the most part, did not disappoint. We crammed in as much as we could in our short two-nights there. (The flights to South Africa on the 1st were just too good to pass up. We saved $800 by flying on the 1st, rather than the 2nd of January.)

Until next time Paris…

We will leave you with our New Year’s Eve in Paris story.

After the clock anti-climactically struck midnight in a less than ideal bar close to our rented apartment we wanted to wander the streets. About 5 minutes into our walk we could hear a rowdy bar with live music… YES! The NYE celebration felt like it switched into high gear. We ducked into the establishment and to our amazement the band was play Jambalaya, Crawfish Pie, File Gumbo!! We all started 2 stepping and pinching ourselves.

Did we just get teleported back home?

That was the only Cajun song that the band played (that I can remember ;) ), but it was perfect!

 

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Lovers on Lock Bridge

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Lock Bridge

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Patiently Waiting

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From the steps of Saint Jaques du Haut Pas

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People Watching Central

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French Mario

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Cathedral of Notre Dame from the Left Bank

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Metro

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Devine Architecture

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Cathedral of Notre Dame

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ND door close up

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Moon rising over Notre Dame

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On the Seine

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Rising Moon

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The Eiffel Tower

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Light show (short exposure) {the light show goes off every hour on the hour until 1am}

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Light Show (long exposure)

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Under the Paris Moon

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Old School Eiffel Tower