go back to Paris

Just want to say that I did this (a year ago, actually—have already been on another three-week trip, to China, in September of this year)! It went super well. Everything I loved about Paris was still as I remembered it.

My friend, Al, who has a crush on me but knows I don’t have feelings for him, has invited me to go on a trip to paris for 2 weeks in November. I am aware of the danger of leading him on by accepting. I asked him, will this hurt you if after 2 weeks we’re still just friends? He said not at all, we’re past that. I have decided to accept his answer as the truth. I’m being up front about where I stand, so I think it’ll be alright.

I said I’d go. Nov. 9 – 23. Back in time for thanksgiving with the family.

I deserve this. It’ll be a month before my 35th birthday. I’ve had a rough few years. I’m grateful to have a friend to go with. It’s going to be great. (I hope we don’t drive one another insane after 2 whole weeks… but I think it’ll be okay.)

Now i have to start listening to my french lesson mp3s.

I want a ham and cheese crepe from the little French guy thats right outside the metro station to the right going towards the eiffel tower…. IT WAS SOOO GOOD!!!! ahhhhhhhhh

CREPES… and the other stuff was cool too. :-)
bisous

i’m going back to Paris! this time i will be there to bring in the New Year. i’m pretty excited. i’ll be coming back home the 10th. wish i could stay longer.

leaving for Paris in the morning!! Hell yeah. No plans, just gonna walk around take it all in etc…!!

i’m going back to P A R I S
this is exciting news.

sam and Meli will be part of this trip. i’m excited that Meli is coming along. she’s working real hard. i will definitely explore more of the city. with Meli it will be fabulous.

were going to do what we did last time. fly to london in january spend some days there then take the train to paris. i’m stoked that i’m going back to london. good times will be had.

It was ever so awesome. I want to live there!!!

This was a lot less emotional than I thought it would be. Maybe it was because things have changed, not in such a dramatic way as to cause wistful longing, but enough to make it clear that it is no longer my place, or at least that this is not my time to be there.

We went back to the bar where I used to work, and it is renamed, redecorated and almost entirely restaffed – the only person I recognised was a kitchen porter whose name I’m not sure I ever knew. The big sights are ones that I have already visited many times, and although I loved walking up the steps to the Sacré Coeur and wandering around the Pompidou centre, I did not feel the desperate urge to explore every last centimètre.

Strangely, it is the small things that still give me the thrills. The mundane things that are just so right. The fact that the metro is only 70p per journey compared with £4 in London – it’s a necessity, for goodness sake! The way that in the flea market at lunch time the traders set up tables between their stalls and lay out bread and wine and actually eat together, rather than wolfing down a sandwich. The language that makes the world so much more alive and full of feeling – to me it seems that words we only use in rare moments of passion or historic recreation, in Paris litter the streets, across shop hoardings and newspaper pages. “Esoterisme”, “oeuvre” “odeur” “désir”. Of course, I doubt any of these things stand out in this way to a native French man or woman, but to me they are indicative of a way of thinking, one that I would still like to share, but maybe not for a while.

(Of course, in writing this entry, I think I may have convinced myself to go back again very soon :-) )

...and would have stayed forever if I could have. But life got in the way, and counting up I realise that it is 5 1/2 years since I last visited. Tomorrow I am going back for a five-day trip, and my feelings are mixed – things there are bound to have changed, and I personally have changed massively since I was last there. Will the love affair be over, or will I be back in its thrall and desperately sad to leave again?

Either way, it will be an interesting adventure, and great to be able to share my most important place with my most important man!

Well… I still have to establish an itinerary, but I have settled on a date, cleared it with my boss, and purchased a round trip ticket to Paris, so that’s a start. I also know that I’m planning on staying in Paris the whole time and will stay in a hotel instead of an apartment.

Now I need to book a hotel; I’ve already gotten together a small list of possibile places. I need to get specific information for each and decide on where I’m going to stay. After that, in addition to an itinerary, I want to look over the list I made of things I need to do in preparation for the trip and map out what I should do when. So:

- Book hotel
- Create itinerary
- Review preparations and complete them

I’m technically way behind the schedule I set for myself in this regard, but if all goes well, I will be in Paris in about 6 months from now, so… not bad!