So East it's Ouest

Okay Paris let's call it quits.  Let's stop all this stealing and cheating and bad attitude.  I accept that you will be expensive and crowded and have terrible weather if you can accept that I can enjoy you without loving you.  Sure I realize you can't control if you have terrible weather and if certain areas are stinkier than others, just like I shouldn't expect the baker to be friendly in the morning after the morning work rush, when they are nice all the better.   This is what I want.  No more of these diva outbursts.  No more expensive crappy restaurant food.  No more hassling.  No more dismissiveness.  If someone elbows me in the boob at the market I want them to at least smile an apology.  No more attitude.  Okay Paris...?  ......ok.  Truce.

If Paris was a person I would go up to her (she is that catty girl from high school didn't you know) and say 'you must have some serious personal problems' and walk away.  Paris has never liked me.  This trip Paris liked me even less.  My latched bag was no problem for the sneaky pickpocket that snagged my wallet.  Lesson learned,never keep your passport and cash in the same area and don't carry it on you when traveling lock it in your bag in the hotel (or hostel).  Flashback to Chicago as I am somewhat mawkishly ogling my passport looking back on my 3 last visas and international stamps thinking to myself how I want to fill this passport up in the 5 years it was valid.  Flashforward reaching into the vide of my purse in order to pay for metro tickets only to touch the soft leather bottom.  What passes through your mind?  First sheer panic, then you convince yourself that you haven't looked well enough.  You return to your hotel you search ev...

Today Paris, tomorrow Amsterdam, back to Paris, to Geneva and then back home in Avignon.  Check out allthingsnederlandse.blogspot.com for a post about Amsterdam.  Super excited to start this trip and especially to see Holland.   Plan for Paris-mainly see things I haven't seen ( cemetary bookstores Pompidou Bastille Luxembourg). Save Montmartre for grandparents  Arrive on TGV at the Gare de Lyon in arrondissement 12 (go to le train bleu) Check out place de la Bastille and the opera house ( grap a bite to eat) Go to arrondissement 4 bookstore, hotel ville, centre Pompidou, perhaps Tuileries  Head over the river seeing notre dame to arrondissement 5 Latin quartier go to Shakespeare and co Arrondissement 6 Luxembourg gardens cemetary de montemarrse  Head to hotel to check in and meet up with grandparents ( arrondissement 14) What happened- I thought I would be able to carry my luggage on my bag and walk around but even 5 minutes after putting my rolling bag on ...