“A walk about Paris will provide lessons in history, beauty, and in the point of life.” – Thomas Jefferson
This trip has been in the books for a while. I’ve meticulously controlled… curated, every facet of this trip for optimum enjoyment. Basically I struggle with free time and always feel a need to be engaged in something. That’s why my travel plans are often filled to the brim with very little wiggle room for stopping to smell the roses, as if we don’t have roses back home. It is both a blessing and a curse, I will spend hours hunched over Google Maps, the Michelin Guide, Reddit, apps not available in the US, and word of mouth to select a single restaurant for one night on a 10 day excursion. So my wife is able to trust me when I select a restaurant, but she also knows that I definitely spent way too much time selecting it.
I feel as if it stems from the perfectionist in me. I always want to make sure everything goes right, no hick ups, smooth transitions but life doesn’t work like that. I can put everything down in a spreadsheet down to the minute. Identify distance to the next activity from lunch and calculate the time needed to walk, bike, or subway over. In the moment when I put all this together it felt right, achievable to an extent. I could quantify the amount that we were able to stick with my schedule or determine a percentage of completion with our goals for our trip, but honestly some of the hick ups encountered along the way can lead to some decent stories so I should embrace more chaos in my life.
We arrived in Paris on a pretty nice Tuesday morning, we were nervous our entire trip was going to be rainy and gloomy. We had a driver scheduled to take us to our hotel that was half a block away from the 1st Arrondissment. We had pre-planned our jet lag by ensuring that we slept and were hydrated through our flight to Paris and it was surprisingly effective. We felt no need for an afternoon nap like we did with our trip to Italy. So after getting settled we set out to visit Notre Dame. I am glad we did because since it was Easter week they actually would have been closed the remainder of the week, which probably explained the massive line to enter the church. It was a bit of a wait but worth it to see the completed repairs after the fire.
The rest of the day was spent relaxing about. We wandered around, we absorbed the city and adjusted ourselves to really take in what we got ourselves into with this long vacation.
The following day was jam packed with everything we could fit into Paris. We walked from our hotel to the Lourve to explore the grounds and gardens, passed by the obelisk in the Concorde Plaza, and walked the entire stretch of the Champs-Elysees to make it to the Are de Triomphe. It provided plenty of opportunities to people watch, absorb the energy of the city, and take a ton of photos. We were sick of the crowds so we took side streets through the Chaillot neighborhood working our way towards the Eiffel Tower. For a lively city these streets were very calm and quiet. We managed to swing by Marche President Wilson for some street food and eventually made our way to the crowded but beautiful tower. The OIympic rings were still in place in front which was a fun sight. We decided to take in the view and move on, crowds are not our thing. We stopped for a quick lunch at a restaurant we were clearly out of our depth for. L’Alma was delicious but was catering to a more high brow, work lunch spot crowd. We crossed the northern bridge and began our trek back to our hotel to get ready to visit the Lourve for an evening tour. We managed to track down the statue of Lafayette donated by the school children of America in like 1890. We read through his wikipedia and admired his life journey. My wife has seen the movie Hamilton a lot and we both enjoyed his character, but we’ve also grown to appreciate the real man as well. Sidewalks were starting to get crowded but surprisingly no one was on the riverwalk below, we retreated from the crowds of folks and enjoyed a quiet and peaceful walk back.
The Lourve is big. Like really big. Like, we managed to see the majority of the sights but had to skip over a TON. We caught the Marley horses, the winged bills, Nike and Venus, Liberty leading the People, and the Mona Lisa. We missed the Coronation of Napoleon, the Raft of Medusa, the Sleeping Hermaphrodite. We’ll need to come back and plan a better way to visit. I had thought going later would avoid the crowds but I think it wasn’t much different from the last time I visited.
I had been looking forward to this dinner for a very very long time. I scheduled this reservation in advance but upon our arrival maybe we didn’t need to. We had a dinner date a Benoit Paris, a Michelin star restaurant. Which they seem to give out like candy in Europe but are stingy in Texas. I digress, what a beautiful space, the atmosphere, the attention to detail. We splurged but that’s what we do when abroad, its paid for with many grilled cheese sandwiches, a common staple in our home’s rotating dinner menu. You’re in Paris so you have to have snails, which many people “bleh” at but they’re soaked in garlic butter and herbs, its hard for anything to not taste good lathered in liquid gold. I applaud my wife for attempting the foie gras when it was brought, but I demolished it. I was recommended the Cassoulet, a dish they are famous for. They brought out a small Le Creuset filled with beans, sausage, pork, mutton and preserved goose, aromatically spiced with garlic and herbs. I stuck my nose in it as they attempted to take it away and asked if I’d like another sniff. Adorable. Dessert was the most delicate and delicious Profiteroles I have ever had. Hats off to Kelly Jolivet and the rest of the team at Benoit Paris.
We enjoyed a night cap at our hotel as we planned the trains and rental car we would be taking tomorrow when we arrived in Reims to make our next destination: Champagne Land.
Cheers Y’all,
William
W Is For Will 
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