first day in Paris

Only once can you experience Paris for the first time. I feel like I'd heard that somewhere, or read it, but it was what went through my mind as my plane descended into Charles de Gaulle and I was finally going to see the city that had captured my imagination and my heart for so many years.

And it didn't disappoint. Once you step out of the metro onto the street in the Latin Quarter, turning the corner to the tiny side street where the hotel is, you see the boutiques, the buildings with the iron balconies practically right up against the street, the narrow roads with the motorcycles and vespas, and then you think that...yes, I'm in Paris. Finalement!

I'd been expecting it to rain pretty much the entire time we were there. But this first day turned out to be a beautiful day. After dropping our bags and changing at the hotel, we headed up to the Seine to the Pont Royal and the Tuileries. This was from the start of a walking tour of the bridges that we thought would be a good introduction, only we got distracted by what was on the right bank after crossing the bridge. Across from the Tuileries was the Louvre, and then walking through the garden, after many pictures, of course, was the Place de la Concorde just before the Champs-Élysées.

It turned out there was a holiday market there, and so we purchased a chocolate crêpe and then a cup of hot Christmas wine and strolled along the avenue, looking at all the trinkets for sale or the store fronts. And up ahead was the Arc de Triomphe, not yet lit up in the sunset. However, when we crossed to the other side, underground of course and not through that traffic, the sun had fully set and the Arc was lit up with the moon just above it.

The last stop of the night was the Tour Eiffel. You can't come to Paris without seeing it, at least not the first time. And now granted, you can see it from so many places around Paris, kind of like the Washington Monument here in DC. But it's not the same as looking up at it from its base.

Walking around Paris was not only a nice introduction our first afternoon there, but it was also a nice way to begin to get acclimated to the metro system. We took the metro to the Eiffel Tower and then back to our hotel, switching lines as needed. And of course there was the initial ride in the morning from the airport where we had to switch to the RER and then to the metro.

Even from just that one afternoon, I knew that I wanted to come back. The first trip to Paris is spent seeing all those wonderful things that have been talked about, filmed and photographed...all those images of Paris I'd seen throughout the years. But walking around, there are many more places to explore. And even of those places that everyone knows, there are more wings in the museums to discover, more boutiques to shop in, more cafes to try...

So yes. I'll be back. But in the meantime, I can relive my trip vicariously through these posts.