Paris and Brussels are Merveilleux!
Just got back from the airport, still 6 hours ahead in another time zone so that it seems like 3:30am! ;( But awake I will stay for awhile so that perhaps I will not wake up in the middle of the night raring to go....where?!?
I think I will post bits and snippets of our week-long adventures in Paris and a day in Brussels as they occur to me over the next several days! :)
Paris I had not been to in a very long time, and this was the longest I have ever stayed in the city. The overwhelming impression for me is that Paris is a world-class city of monumental things--of history, palaces, museums (the Louvre of course! ;), statuary, parks, tower (Eiffel!), grand boulevards and intimate streets (and lots and lots of them!), churches, and so on and so on....
Being fortunate to live so near another world-class city (NY) the difference is that Paris has such a sense of history, and with that, of class. Paris is very vibrant and alive just like NY, but the past is always very close at hand, and that is absolutely great! :) We walked and walked, and just about around every block there was another vista to take your breath away, some new wonder that is just there to absorb as you round the corner.
We relied on using our feet for most of the trip, combined with the Paris Metro (and yes, there are so many warnings about the very professional pickpockets in Paris and the Metro in particular that we left all but some cash and a credit card and a cash card in the safe in our room, and carried a photocopy of our passports should they be needed for identification--and that worked great, along with keeping the purses zipped and under ones arms, and in my case, my cash and cards in my front pants pockets, under my coat). And no pickpockets were to be seen (at least we had no incidents).
More later! :D
I think I will post bits and snippets of our week-long adventures in Paris and a day in Brussels as they occur to me over the next several days! :)
Paris I had not been to in a very long time, and this was the longest I have ever stayed in the city. The overwhelming impression for me is that Paris is a world-class city of monumental things--of history, palaces, museums (the Louvre of course! ;), statuary, parks, tower (Eiffel!), grand boulevards and intimate streets (and lots and lots of them!), churches, and so on and so on....
Being fortunate to live so near another world-class city (NY) the difference is that Paris has such a sense of history, and with that, of class. Paris is very vibrant and alive just like NY, but the past is always very close at hand, and that is absolutely great! :) We walked and walked, and just about around every block there was another vista to take your breath away, some new wonder that is just there to absorb as you round the corner.
We relied on using our feet for most of the trip, combined with the Paris Metro (and yes, there are so many warnings about the very professional pickpockets in Paris and the Metro in particular that we left all but some cash and a credit card and a cash card in the safe in our room, and carried a photocopy of our passports should they be needed for identification--and that worked great, along with keeping the purses zipped and under ones arms, and in my case, my cash and cards in my front pants pockets, under my coat). And no pickpockets were to be seen (at least we had no incidents).
More later! :D