little black journal

Shane and I had originally planned on taking a day trip out to the country today, but we decided last night, “What better way to spend a Thursday than lounging around Paris?”  So we stuck around town, making a point of having a particularly leisurely day, after the whirlwind of sightseeing we’ve been caught up in lately.  As usual, we started the day off with a treat from whatever bakery happened to catch our eye on the way to the Metro.  I am still on a quest to find the best pain au chocolat in Paris, no matter how many different samples I have to taste (or pounds I have to gain).  We spent the morning at Pere Lachaise cemetery, leisurely strolling around the cobblestone paths, studying the different tombstones and mausolea.  This place is near the top of my list of favorite places in Paris.  Although there certainly is something eerie about hanging out in a graveyard, there is also an incredible sense of quiet there that you don’t find may places in the city.

For lunch, we grabbed a couple of baguette sandwiches and sat in the sun at Place des Vosges.  I could sit on a bench there for hours, watching little French kids run by with their moms and dads, listening to whoever happens to be playing the guitar nearby, soaking in the beauty of the old stone and brick facades on all sides of me.  Love it.  But I was craving a cafe creme, and Shane was craving a nap, so he headed back to the apartment while I grabbed my journal and walked over to Ile Saint Louis to find a table in the sun where I could do some writing and some coffee-drinking.  It was a nice afternoon – no concerns about checking things off our list of things to see, no rushing to get to any museums before closing or to any sights before sunset, just time to sit and “be” here.  It felt good.

Rested and relaxed, we headed over to the Eiffel Tower this evening to grab a spot on the lawn of the Champ de Mars and enjoy the sight of the tower lighting up for the night.  We brought a bottle of wine, picked up a beautiful little tarte aux fraises at a bakery nearby, and settled into the grass for a couple of hours to watch the sky get darker and darker and the Eiffel Tower get brighter and brighter.  Yes, it was every bit as romantic as it sounds.  But a chill set in once nighttime fell, and so we begrudgingly packed up our things and trekked toward the Metro.  If only we’d had a tent and a couple of sleeping bags – we could have stayed there all night…