After a slow start to the year and enjoying being home and getting into a semi-normal routine, I find myself back in adventure mode. Well, it's a continuation of the adventure that started mid-May, but I failed to chronicle that in detail. I had a work trip #1 to Paris a few weeks ago, which was mostly work, with a side trip to Giverny for an afternoon, followed by a 4 night "vacation" to Barcelona. My Mom came along and we had an amazing time! She wandered Paris during the day, and told me all about the amazing things she did over dinner. We rented a small apartment in Barcelona, ate our way across the city and making sure we were daily Fitbit "Overachievers". I need to sit down and recap that trip, but for now I'll pick up with where I am today.
I sit here in my second hotel room of the week (I only arrived Monday morning and it's Tuesday), looking out over the City of Lights, wondering how I ended up in Paris yet again and trying to figure out when I'm going home. The plan when I left NY on Sunday night was to complete my client meeting Tuesday morning, spend Tuesday afternoon and all day Wednesday being a tourist and then flying home Thursday. But in our client meeting today, they decided to ask us to meet with them again next Wednesday and I was suddenly hit with a dilemna - stay or go and come back. You are probably thinking, that's easy, stay! Take advantage of the free trip. Go, enjoy, take it all in! But before I came to that conclusion, a few things ran through my head. You only packed for 3 days. You don't have any hotels booked. It gets a little old traveling by yourself after a while. I really don't want to sit on a plane for an extra 18 hours if I don't have to. I'm so damned tired I just want to sleep and figure it out later.
So here I am. I took a nap, woke up at 8 pm, decided to get out the map, pick a neighborhood and see what Yelp recommends for dinner and just walk. I'm staying near Montparnasse, close to the 6th Arrondissement and found a great little wine bar/restaurant (Au Pere Louis) and set off. I walked around the Montparnasse Cemetery, through the Luxembourg Palace gardens (it was still full of people hanging out at 9:15 and completely light out!), had a glass of wine and french onion soup/smoked salmon salad and took a good look around. Maybe it was Jean-Paul Sartre speaking to me as I passed the cemetery walls or the calmness of wandering streets older than my own country or the glass of Sancerre, but I came to a decision. Just be. Stop worrying about between now and next Wednesday, don't waste precious time on an airplane when you don't have to and just enjoy being in Europe.
Though I'm exploring on my own, I'm not really by myself. I'll take it all in and try to share here at the end of the day. Hope you join me as I figure out the week! Send suggestions on places to eat, things to see, if you have friends who wouldn't mind having a glass of wine with a stranger and if so inclined and you want to hop on a plane, let me know!
Here are a few pics from the first evening:
Luxembourg Palace
Eiffel Tower in background
I sit here in my second hotel room of the week (I only arrived Monday morning and it's Tuesday), looking out over the City of Lights, wondering how I ended up in Paris yet again and trying to figure out when I'm going home. The plan when I left NY on Sunday night was to complete my client meeting Tuesday morning, spend Tuesday afternoon and all day Wednesday being a tourist and then flying home Thursday. But in our client meeting today, they decided to ask us to meet with them again next Wednesday and I was suddenly hit with a dilemna - stay or go and come back. You are probably thinking, that's easy, stay! Take advantage of the free trip. Go, enjoy, take it all in! But before I came to that conclusion, a few things ran through my head. You only packed for 3 days. You don't have any hotels booked. It gets a little old traveling by yourself after a while. I really don't want to sit on a plane for an extra 18 hours if I don't have to. I'm so damned tired I just want to sleep and figure it out later.
So here I am. I took a nap, woke up at 8 pm, decided to get out the map, pick a neighborhood and see what Yelp recommends for dinner and just walk. I'm staying near Montparnasse, close to the 6th Arrondissement and found a great little wine bar/restaurant (Au Pere Louis) and set off. I walked around the Montparnasse Cemetery, through the Luxembourg Palace gardens (it was still full of people hanging out at 9:15 and completely light out!), had a glass of wine and french onion soup/smoked salmon salad and took a good look around. Maybe it was Jean-Paul Sartre speaking to me as I passed the cemetery walls or the calmness of wandering streets older than my own country or the glass of Sancerre, but I came to a decision. Just be. Stop worrying about between now and next Wednesday, don't waste precious time on an airplane when you don't have to and just enjoy being in Europe.
Though I'm exploring on my own, I'm not really by myself. I'll take it all in and try to share here at the end of the day. Hope you join me as I figure out the week! Send suggestions on places to eat, things to see, if you have friends who wouldn't mind having a glass of wine with a stranger and if so inclined and you want to hop on a plane, let me know!
Here are a few pics from the first evening:
Luxembourg Palace
Eiffel Tower in background
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