“Paris is the greatest temple ever built to material joys and the lust of the eyes” -Henry James
One of the things we were both looking forward to on this holiday was long lazy morning full of ridiculously long lay ins and longer breakfasts. Our mornings usually start at 6am even on the weekends so you can imagine our excitement of not having to set any alarms or not having to be anywhere at a certain time. Unfortunately for us our bodies had other plans and our body clocks still woke us up at 6am, so we decided not to fight it and go out and look for breakfast before most of Paris was even stirring. I have no idea what time Paris wakes up but I am pretty sure its not before 10am as the streets seem to be deserted until about lunch time. Luckily the only plan for the day we had was to visit Notre Dame at some point so we just walked the Parisian streets hand in hand.
You can’t turn a corner in Paris without finding a little gem, only a couple of turns from the Arc de Triomphe we stumbled down a narrow side street filled either side with the most colourful market being set up. There were stalls filled with the freshest of foods, men yelling across to each other in French and the very odd early morning shopper who most not of got the memo that Paris doesn’t wake until 10am. Between each stall was a narrow gap that led to doors and doors of small independent shops filled with all my favourite things cheese, bread and cakes!!
Every few streets we would stop for a coffee, now for all the beautiful buildings, amazing art and the hundreds of years of fascinating history my favourite part of Paris is the cafe culture. We would literally stop every hour for a coffee or wine and take a seat outside under a heater. We wrapped our arms around each other and watched the world go by, not to mention some very erratic driving. I could spend the rest of my life just strolling in out of cafes in Paris with Alex.
Hes a weirdo but hes my weirdo!!!!!
You can’t walk more than ten feet in Paris without walking into a stunningly beautiful building, the architecture in Paris is absolutely insane. Every building is a triumph of its time, this is Opera national de Paris, even the names in French sound stunning. With all the buildings being equally as beautiful as the last its hard to know where one ends and the next begins so I am afraid that these blog posts are going to be pretty picture heavy, I just couldn’t decide which pictures to cut while editing and just decided to throw them all in, for good measure and all.
Me and you both know that there was no way on this earth that I could possibly walk past this window without stopping to press my little nose up against the glass. Clearly all these little chocolate brioche men needed rescuing ASAP! And luckily Alex knows how much I love saving food, specially man shaped bread food. He appeared next to me with a little sweet bread man for me, only ever fall in love with a man that brings you food, never questions the amount you need and carries treats around for snack emergencies. Thats the kind of positivity you need in your life, on our first date (which you can read about in yesterdays blog post, in case you missed it!) Alex turned up to pick me up for the airport with bags of Haribo!!! I should have known then that he was the one!
Our walk led us through the grounds of The Louvre which was closed this meant we were able to get some pictures without hundreds of tourists in each shot. It always shocks me, how on days like this Paris doesn’t feel like a city at all. Whereas in other cities you feel like you are being herded around with the crowds Paris feels open and spacious. This could possibly be because you spend the whole time walking around in your own little bubble that everyone else just melts away.
Even after a full day in Paris I was still pinching myself, it took the whole trip before it actually sunk in that we were in Paris. After a first failed attempt to make it there. Then hand on heart after our break over the summer, when I honestly didn’t think I would ever see him again (I mean, i’m sure none of us saw it coming!!). We were actually in Paris as a couple and in a full on relationship, I don’t think I stopped smiling the whole holiday.
My boyfriends fitter than yours!!!
Even the museums in Paris are beautiful works of art!
We ended our morning with a stroll along the River Seine, holding hands and giggling our way to the next coffee stop, I am a lucky woman. Keep an eye out tomorrow for my next Paris blog post which is all about the utterly stunning Notre Dame and some more sickly cute couple pics! Sorry, not sorry!!!!
