Thursday, October 19, 2017

Ten surprises from my trip to Paris










I am back from Paris. And though I work a little too hard in life to never be surprised it is a futile endeavor. This is especially true in journeys to foreign lands. So Paris repeatedly opened my eyes, and I have brought back ten impressions of Paris that all caught me a bit off guard.

1. Paris is in black and white. Except for the parks.

 2. Parisians are nice. This includes waiters.

 3. The Mona Lisa is a brilliant and lovely painting.

 4. French food is not a cuisine, it's food, really, really, really good food.

 5. The French language is fun and easy as long as you don't look at it.

 6. There are more bookstores in Paris than, well, anywhere I have ever been in my life.

 7. Unfortunately these books all appear to be in French.

 8. Paris Disneyland actually is Paris Disneyland as opposed to A Disneyland in Paris.

 9. Long security and customs lines are possibly a reasonable response to acts of terrorism and yet by day five I would far rather we died in an act of terrorism than had to stand in another line for an hour.

 10. The Mall of America and The Champs-Elysees have a lot in common. A lot. Perhaps regrettably The Mall of America is better.





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4 comments:

  1. mdnezOctober 20, 2017 at 11:09 PM

    1-3 was my impression as well! You sound like you enjoyed yourself, except for the lines and French books.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Feldenstein CalypsoOctober 21, 2017 at 7:52 AM

      Well, yeah, the lines. Customs was wicked, in a bad way. As for the books, well, it impressed me positively, but made me very jealous.

      Yes, we both enjoyed it a great deal. I'm glad you can corroborate 1-3. I wondered if the black and white thing had something to do with the clouds and season, but I suspected not.

      Delete
  2. mdnezOctober 26, 2017 at 12:47 AM

    I was only able to dash off a couple days there in a late November. All of Europe that i saw was in that mode of greys and i think it's partly seasonal.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Feldenstein CalypsoOctober 26, 2017 at 3:12 AM

      That makes sense and yet I have been in Rome in late fall drizzle and Venice in mid winter and I suspect nothing but the end of the world could strip the color from those cities.

      Delete

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