One of my favorite films from this past year was “Midnight in Paris” by Woody Allen. And after visiting the city, even only for two days, I can see why he loves Paris so much. It’s sort of magical…during both the day and night. It’s a wonderful and almost fulfilling intersection of modernity and cities past. Of course that’s my overly romantic opinion…sort of like Paris. Overly romantic…a little intoxicating. Seriously, I hope Thomas Appleton was right.

The afternoon saw us spend a good portion of time within the Notre Dame Cathedral. It’s magnificent.

We continued our wanderings, passing the River Seine, headed for anywhere.

Another beautiful buildling, the Hôtel de Ville was a more modern (if only slightly) follow-up after Notre Dame.

We took a break that afternoon at Les Piétons on Rue Lombards for tapas. The food was excellent, but better yet was the waiter who spoke Spanish. I don’t speak any French but I can manage some Spanish and so we were able to get directions to Ladurée. Finally a chance to use some Spanish…I only had to go to France to do it.

A hop on the metro and we arrived at Rue Royale…where Ladurée somewhere awaited us.

Ladurée is famous for being the origin of the double-decker macaron…and according to Caroline, the place to find the most amazing macarons. (I’d never had one until then…but Lauren has, and she said that Ladurée’s were pretty phenemonal.)

The small salon/parlor area was packed. The queue wrapped from the counter to the back of the pastry shop to the door. The attendees behind the counter were dressed in matching uniforms and extremely professional, speaking French, English, and more. I can’t even imagine what the adjoining tea room must have been like. Being from Jacksonville, Ladurée seemed even more stylish and fancy than it was already. And all for macarons…but they were wonderfully tasty.

Rue Royale led straight into the Église de la Madeleine. Most surprising to me was that this massive building, very similar to Roman temple with it’s many Corinthian columns, was actually a Catholic church.

And then we sought out another church! The Basilica of the Sacré Cœur is on a hill called Montmartre which is the highest point in Paris.

Our final dinner in Paris was with Vero at Le Relais Gascon. They serve the biggest salads I’ve ever seen. I split a salad with Lauren that had a huge portion of smoked salmon and some creme that I don’t know what to call. So good.

Paris is huge and it would require far more time than we had to even get a decent taste of the city…but there was one sight that I desperately wanted to see before our departure the next morning. The Arc de Triomphe is the first thing that comes to my mind when I think of Paris…even before the Eiffel Tower. On our way back to Vero’s apartment, we stopped quickly at the Place Charles de Gaulle for a final moment as tourists.

Vero being silly, and like me, refusing to take a serious picture. She’s amazing.

Our last metro ride of the night, we were serenaded by a lone guitarist singing “Aux Champs-Elysées” and considering that we’d just left the Avenue des Champs-Élysées and that it was our last night in Paris, it was simply perfect.

I still want to hear accordions though while I stroll down a pedestrian walkway in Paris.
I guess I’ll have to go back.