Today in Paris

Here I am in Paris, and my body thinks it’s just woken up from a long afternoon nap. Since I am up early, I should make the most of it and go see something new and wonderful like French bus rapid transit or the museum X or next year’s fashion in San Francisco at the outlet stores. But when have I ever made the most of my time? Why start now?

Canadian Airlines was fine even tho the plane was 2 hours late out of Montreal. The airport had electrical outlets and I processed photos I haven’t had time to look at since I shot them. (I used my time well then!)

I watched The Other Boleyn Girl on the plane (we had hundreds of options) bc G had watched it on a flight recently and I was curious. Natalie Portman should really stick to still photography – she’s nice to look at as long as she isn’t trying to express anything. Like G, I checked the validity of the story learned it had a slight basis in reality especially if you allow for the expansion and compression of time to serve a story. Reading about Henry VIII’s relationships with women definitely supports Brian’s claims about the cycles of relationships covering a series of years and then shifting. He was so in love with Anne as to change the religion of his country, and yet, a few years latter (their relationship lasted less than 10 years according to my source), he threw her over for Jane Seymore.

But mostly, I slept.

I selected this flight partly for its price (which was still outrageous – Tina confirmed her flight was the same price through STA) but also for its times. I like arriving en France in the middle of the day because when you arrive in the morning you have to stay awake for too long and when you arrive at night you have to navigate the city in the dark with weird men all around (Paris is lousy with weird men) and then go straight to bed (which you don’t want to do both bc your body isn’t ready and also because you’re excited to be here). So, I arrived at 1:30 instead of 11:30 – annoying bc the flight is already too long but really fine because what was I going to do with that time anyway?

I met up with Tina at their place near the Canal in the late afternoon. They’re doing a Canal Plage too – like the one on the Seine – with clowns and dancing and little trains for children to ride, ice cream, additional cafes (we can never have enough outdoor seating!) etc. I witnessed some really special moments with children interacting with clowns

but the dancing broke my heart with its sweetness.

At Tina’s, we snacked on water and figs and chatted for a bit. Later, six of us brought our own fun canal-side with a picnic. We watched the sun fade over the city.


I woke up at 7, but I have been puttering around the apartment for nearly 5 hours. I should head out into the world. But first, this post with photos (rather time consuming!).