Michael and I have so been enjoying our little trip to Paris so far. I’ve been wandering, taking photos (man, I wish I knew how to use my camera better!), and we’ve managed to see the Louvre, the Champs d’Elysees, the Sacre Couer. And, we’ve done a ton of walking around, observing people and shops, food and customs.
{I loved their logo, so I took a photo from my coffee cup! They serve excellent, strong coffee, even if their staff is a little pretentious!}
One of the things that’s struck us in our strolling is how Parisians seem to have perfected the art of people watching. We stopped by the cafe Les Deux Magots this afternoon – the same cafe Hemingway, Sartre, and Picasso used to spend hours chatting and working – and noticed that everyone was sitting along the back wall of the patio. Everyone. There wasn’t a soul sitting with their back to the street.
{Michael and I didn’t realize the no-sitting-with-your-back-to-the-window rule until we’d already sat down. Here he is trying to check out the lady in the fur coat nonchalantly. Not so easy!}
During our people watching foray, we made a few observations and broad generalizations about the French:
– they dress their children like little chic grownups
– they are slim (no news there!)
– they wear the hippest suede boots. how do they get away with that when it snows?
We also noticed the following happen around us inside the cafe:
– a girl wearing sweater pants (seriously, made of knit material) writing mathematical equations on the paper tablecloth
– a very eccentric grandma not letting her grown grandson get a word in edgewise (we don’t understand French, but he looked like he’d given up!)
– a midwestern American couple speaking French just like we do – “May I please have deux cafe au laits, please, I mean, merci..um..s’il vous plait?”
In the afternoon, we headed up to the Montmartre area, where we stayed a few years ago. It felt like our old ‘hood! Strolling around, I snapped this photo of the outside of a cafe. They’re all facing the street – except that one girl, maybe she was American!
During this trip to Paris, I’ve realized two things: one day, I’d like to move to France for a year. Two, in the meantime, I want to adopt a few Parisian characteristics in my life in Dublin. So far? Hip suede boots and people watching for hours.
What about you? Do you take life inspiration from your travels? Do share, I’d love to hear!
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