Part Deux


See what I did there- used French and referenced "Hot Shots", impressive right? On the morning of April 28, 2022 Tracy and I hailed an Uber from the Victor Hotel in London bound for St. Pancras International to board the Eurostar to Paris, France. I continue to marvel at the efficiency of the Europeans and their trains/mass transit systems. St. Pancras was easy to navigate and we had zero issues with customs or boarding the trains. During the ride we'd cross the English Channel via "the Chunnel"-which for me was something I was pretty excited about as it was an absolute engineering marvel. In reality-it was completely unremarkable which is probably the highest compliment I could give as I, at no time, had any clue that we were travelling nearly 200 miles per hour (save for the screens saying so).


About two hours later (I'd spent most of the time editing photos on my laptop) we slowed down as we reached the Gare du Nord in Paris. Getting off the train was easy, signage was plentiful, and the bathrooms were clean for their cost of 1 Euro. Once we'd liberated our bladders we were going to head back upstairs to hail an Uber when we noticed that the Metro line was very close. Having had a positive experience when she'd visited Paris a few years ago Tracy suggested we try the subway. Why the heck not? I have to say Paris' Metro is the BEST PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION I'VE EVER USED! We combined it with the Citymapper app and it never steered us wrong. Download Citymapper for your next trip, seriously. As it turns out our train stop was less than 400 yards from our front door on Rue St. Denis off of the Étienne Marcel stop-we've dragged luggage further in airports. Once inside (save for the staircase of death) our flat was BEAUTIFUL and featured a tap that had sparking water!!!

What a vibe!


I've had the good fortune to have visited quite a few places in my life and I can, with all sincerity, say that I've never been to a place like Paris. I feel as though it's replaced Chicago as my favorite city. The overall vibe is just so hip yet chill, dressed up yet casual, edgy yet safe, traditional yet modern, and just so darn scenic. There's so much history juxtaposed with modern city things-it's bananas. Around every corner you'll see ancient architecture, modern graffiti, and fantastic food. For the longest time I thought it was just people waxing romantic about this place in an effort to justify their costs in getting there-after visiting I'm happy to report that I was wrong and Paris is every bit as cool as everyone made it out to be.


We did a lot of the normal touristy stuff like the Eiffel Tower, Champs-Élysées (though we skipped all the bougie stores), Arc de Triomphe, Louvre, Pantheon, Odeon, and Luxembourg Palace. All of those things were spectacular and I wish we'd had more time as I could easily spend a week just taking photos of the various landmarks. The two things I probably enjoyed the most were people watching and the food. We stayed in the 2nd arrondissement and within a 5 block radius we had some of the best food I've ever eaten. We went to Le Chef Thai our last night and OMG that was the best Thai food I've ever had...and believe me when I say I've eaten a lot of Thai food. The previous night we ate at a Mediterranean/Algerian place called Au Clair de la Lune and it was SPECTACULAR. In other places I won't attempt to remember we had crepes, baguettes, jambon beure, macarons, eclairs, espresso, and bahn mi. The happy hours (Tracy tells me they're called L'apertif) were awesome with so many good wines at such reasonable prices (also helped the Dollar and Euro were pretty close to equal at the time) and my lovely spouse was digging her Aperol spritzes.


On our last night there we took some long exposure shots at the Louvre which was awesome. We were hoping to get the Eiffel Tower too but just ran out of time. I guess I'll get there next time with a more telefoto lens and tripod (didn't have mine the first night) to check out some alternate vantage points. I really can't say enough about our time in Paris and I'm definitely counting the days until we can go back. I'd STRONGLY encourage you to go too :-)