Category: paris 2009

day 6 – notre dame, market, louvre, pompidou, dinner, gardens, night on the sienne

as you can probably tell by the title of this post this has been quite a long day with a lot of things happening. this is what happens when it only gets dark by 11pm and it gets light at 6am… your days seem unbelievably long. and of course being on vacation doesn’t hurt either.

i woke up first and not as early as i’d have liked – i was supposed to wake up at 8 in order to get to notre dame before the line ups; alas the 2am falling asleep ensured that i really didn’t get out of bed until 8:40, thus getting out of the house by 9:10. k was still asleep when i left.

i tried to hit up the local market on my way out of our area but nothing seemed to be there, and i thought i had the wrong square. on my walk to the subway found another bakery, where the croissants were FAR more delicious – thus ensuring i have a quick snack later on in my line up for notre dame.

going to notre dame alone really reminded me how much more paranoid i am when i travel by myself. though i enjoy the lack of accountability (stop and go as i wish) it is more unnerving to be by yourself. i played the parisian role by reading on the metro while huddling in the corner. karmun wisely slept in and left me to stand the line up (yes, line up 30 mins prior to opening – insane!) and climb the stairs (400 something of those) by myself. i don’t blame her – i wouldn’t and haven’t cared to go up last few times in paris either, but i really wanted those gargoyle photos.

notre dame itself, outside of the stair climb, was pretty much as expected. i had a cute chat with the security guard about the ebook – not because he thought its a problem, but just because he saw me reading it and got curious. that thing provokes friends like no other – everyone wants to look at it and touch it. its awesome!

the climb reminded me that after paris i’m probably going to have mad toned legs, because of all the climbing up and down from the subways, into the subways, from our apartment, into our apartment, from views and sights, into views and sights, from museums, into museums, from stores, into stores, etcetcetc – these people don’t like their gyms but love their stairs.

the views up top were as spectacular as promised; photos – eh, we’ll see – i definitely loved the gargoyles. if i ever have a balcony i’m definitely getting a few gargoyles – they are actually really cute. i even saw one that looked like an elephaunt – how awesome is that?

quickly getting home after picking up a few small bottles of wine for tonight put me home at 12:15 – pretty early for having checked off a landmark of the day’s list of activities. k slept in and so we went to have a very Nice lunch in the nearby square – it was somewhat pricey, but very good. it was the nicest meal we’ve had so far; to be honest though i enjoyed the cheaper food in other restaurants a bit more. i like the classic french bistro fare. before we sat down for lunch we noticed the market that i was looking for earlier in the morning  – it was now open, so we walked around.

markets seem to be very similar between all cities in europe. though they change depending on the size of the city  and the language, the essentials are always there. fish, cheese, meat, veggies, fruit, cheapo clothes.

clothes – nah, nada

fruits – cherries

veggies – nah, nada

cheese – yes, a bit, 50g

meat – procuitto, yes, a bit, 100g

c’est tout. quick and efficient.

we dropped off the produce at home after lunch and went on to louvre. louvre was the same as usual – though we got a lot of awesome photos of horribly freaky painted babies (painted as in, on the paintings), i got really stressed out and overwhelemed in my usual fashion, so  we wrapped it up pretty quick and got out of there. all told for louvre it was 2 hrs – i guess i’ll keep that limit in mind next time i come!

we headed to pompidou area, and prior to going to the museum took a long, relaxed coffee & coke at a nearby area. it certainly helped restore our spirits and renergize us for another museum.

pompidou was fun – i liked a few exhibits:

  • a lot of picasso – nice to see.
  • fauvres – like old friends, happy to see again
  • duchamp’s ready mades
  • some very modern art where the artist cut a hole in the ceiling in a very geometric shape and then placed either the ceiling or white cubist/triangular pieces shaped like it on the floor. basically a great piece of installation art.
  • a video of a woman violently combing herself and repeating “art must be beautiful. artist must be beautiful.” it actually made quite an impression on me.
  • some modern furniture/industrial design, but not enough. i should hit up some industrial design museums next time or maybe even find some in toronto.

after pompidou we walked around the area, which turned out to be super sketchy. we got hungry and picked the restaurant too quickly and got our first major major rip off of the trip – not TOO Bad of a rip off, but still. the food was HORRENDOUS, like, unbelievably bad. so bad we actually shook our heads at some tourists that came up behind us and thus disuaded them from sitting down. a table near us sent their food back. we sure were happy to have the market meats back home at this point. though the atrocious dinner provided us some energy to get home, ugh, NEVER AGAIN a place with an english menu.

it really was so bad it became funny. even the wine was watered down. terrible.

anyway. after the terrible, terrible place, from which we ran as fast as we could – we got home, picked up our snacks, and finished them in front of the tuileries garden fountain. towards the end of our meal a very nice, friendly, normal guy near us chatted us up – and i mean, very normally. (we tried to grab a few chairs and they were sniped, so he commented how chairs are expensive around here).

after he tried to open my wine and failed, we got kicked out of the gardens because they were closing, so we ended up finish our meal and my wine on a nearby pedestrian bridge – which was really, really fun! it was great to meet a non creepy local, and he genuinely was very nice. we all chatted amicably for about an hour and then he left home and i realized my wallet was missing, so we rushed back to the apartment.

before ya’ll freak out:

1) i mentioned i’m married as soon as it seemed that he’s not a creepster that we’re trying to get rid of

2) wallet was left at home

3) we’re being smart and not stupid

anyway, so all was good; we came home, i copied photos, i blogged, and now to read and then sleep in slightly.

plan for the last day is somewhat vague right now. i want to sleep in until 10am, because i plan to stay up until our flight – our flight is at 9:40 so we should be in the cab by 7am at least, and given how its 1:20 as i’m blogging this i think i’ll be ok if i have a cup of coffee around 10-11pm. this way i should pass out on the flight and arrive nice and switched back.

we want to visit place dus vosges/marais; see dept. store bon marche; go for drinks in the montparnasse; get a sunset photo of eiffel tower over river (i’m the driving force behind THAT one… its a pain because i know what photo i want but dont know where i can get it from); and generally have a good time on our last day. hopefully we’ll fit it all in.

the only thing i know, is that the food in that place SUCKED MAJORLY. ugh. at least our tourist karma has been fulfilled.

day 5 – c&a, orsay, eiffel, inspiration strikes

    day 5 started pretty freaking late, given the 2am bed time. we got up at 9 am (karmun) and 10 am (me), feeling pretty groggy. dragged ourselves back into the shopping area and ended up in the same breakfast places as the one the day before – but too late for breakfast, but that point it became almost lunch time. i had a delicious salad with procuitto, melon, soft cheese and tomatoes; karmun had a chicken club as to keep her delicate system healthy. the food was good, and after lunch we split up for our respective goals.

    one positive thing about today, though i am still ugly coughing and we’re both somewhat “off”, karmun is back to feeling much better. me? eeh, i’m hanging in there.

    our respective goals were – c&a for me; lafayette for karmun. 1-2:30pm we hunted and hunted. i went through 4 levels of that store; found nothing for mom; found 1 jacket for me (woo), and a shirt when i was waiting for k back at our meeting place.

    zara was unsucessful.

    i still feel dissatisfied about lack of shoe success; that said after talking about fashion and shopping with karmun tonight i realize that a lot of it stems from my lack of looking. an 80 eu pair of shoes is 130 cad. i never buy shoes that expensive in canada; if i did i would likely – and often surely could – find the type of thing that i am looking for (cute, high quality, stylish flat, etc.). the goal was to find the same thing cheaper – and that was not THAT successful. i did get lucky with my zara high heeled pair.

    after shopping we regrouped and headed home for a quick breather (that’s when i blogged day 4). after the breather we went off to orsay.

    aah, orsay. my favourite museum; the impressionists will always sit dear in my heart. we lolled around there until they closed and kicked everyone out. k enjoyed the impressionists and wasn’t too obviously bothered (well, truth be told she wasn’t bothered at all – very patient girl) with my insestant chattering about “they did this because of…” and “look at the way that he painted the light here it is so hard because…” and “oh my god look at how claustraphobic this feels!” and “LOOK AT MY GOOSEBUMPS” (which i seriously said at least 3 times). apparently i’m the type of person who gets goosebumps around great art.

    maybe it was the AC.

    i really think it was the art, though.

    the lillies weren’t on show this time, but k fell in love with “Woman with a Parasol”, both of them (1, 2) – i think she liked 1 more.

    after we got kicked out, we subwayed it in another crazy hot subway car to the eiffel tower. walked around, took photos, had coke and a crepe, and headed back home.

    sunset went into full swing by this point. after eiffel we went onto this huge ferris wheel, and this is when my inspiration woke up and i got a lot of excellent photos. as we came down, renewed and somehow inspired i actually got some excellent photos as we crossed the louvre, the river, slowly making our way to the restaurant for a quick bite to eat.

    the dinner was excellent; i had meat of the day (blood sausage in wine reduction with apples and mashed potatoes) and k had fish of the day (no idea). we wrapped up at 11, headed back and got stuck again on the bridge because it was too freaking beautiful.

    day 5 was the most productive day photography wise. and probably least successful sleep wise.

    you must understand, its light here until 10pm, how in the world are we supposed to go back home before 11? ofcourse now its almost 1am and k still has to blog, so i sign off.

    day 4 – galeries lafayette and montmartre

    day 4 started off pretty poorly. i woke up with a headache, grumpy as all, feeling sick and tired. this despite going to bed very early – i got 10 hours of sleep, but the sleep was very “low quality” – i kept tossing and turning and waking up every time i do so.

    i got up first, blogged, woke up, showered, karmun got up around 9am and we again fairly quickly and efficiently got our butts out the door by 9:30.

    walking away from the touristy area where we’re staying we headed towards paris’ largest department store – galeries lafayette. a huge department store, full of fancy, designer, unique and other clothes, shoes, bags and anything you can dream of. their shoe floor was mindblowing on several levels. it was really quite insane.

    but i’m getting ahead of myself! each morning i wake up grumpy until i have my coffee, and in general because we dive into high energy action quickly after eating we must have breakfast. we found a cute little place near the store where the breakfast for the 2 of us was not only 5 eu cheaper, but also much, much better. compare and contrast:

    • louvre area 10eu gets you: a coffee, a croissant OR toast (and they were out of croissants and the toast was very very lame), a little plastic “airplane style” box of jam, orange juice, butter.
    • more french oriented dept. store area 7.50eu gets you: a coffee, a croissant, a great baguette toast, a small glass jar of jam, orange juice, butter.

    the cafe was very cute otherwise as well. a funny highlight – as we sat and ate i saw a little boy with a russian grandma? (mom? looked too old to be his mom, boy was 7-8 yrs old…) walk in. she perched on the edge of the outer seating area, and instructed him in a classically Russian way to take a photo. then, she actually walked in deeper and posed against the curtains that framed the entrance to the cafe, and he took another photo. and then they ran away. they didn’t even have anything to drink in the stupid cafe, and trust me, the cafe was not even that remarkable!!! ah, hilarious.

    in all ways it was a lovely breakfast. and karmun was feeling better; i felt better too upon taking advil cold & sinus. after munching away and waking up we ran through the galeries for women, galeries for men, c&a, another dept store (name forgotten, next to the galeries), galeries for the house, all in about 3 hours.

    while most things were madly out of my price range the memorable highlight was indeed the shoe floor. the galeries for maison (for the home) was surprisingly good – though a lot of stuff, or most of it, is available in canada, it was great to see a lot of the familiar brands close and side by side. i can tell you guys, we’re damn lucky – the mid century classic remakes that are produced in europe are about 3 times more expensive.

    i also saw my favourite elephaunt – http://www.dwr.com/product/designers/d-g/charles-ray-eames/eames-elephant.do?sortby=ourPicks – very very cute and costs .. 300 eu. at the exchange rate, that’s insane compared to the above, especially given how both are manufactured by licensed authentic makers.

    after speeding through the dept stores we decided we’ll split up and return tomorrow – me, to cover the cheaper and more “old lady” c&a, and karmun to cover in detail the dept store which is not in my reality for most clothes. next on our list was to hit up the area where we had the nice authentic dinner 2 days ago.

    on the way to our dinner we passed by a few shoe and clothing stores where i noticed some stuff that i really liked – a pair of cream flats for 30eu and a black dress for 35eu. the general area was close to a bunch of japanese eateries. by guess and intution we managed to cross from the dept stores into that area and actually find all the stores we saw before.

    side note. paris is really hard to navigate because nothing is paralelle. it is very web like; all streets are diagonal; and for my intuition, when i think i’m going in the right direction in reality, like a man lost in the desert, i’m slowly veering off course without knowing it. i.e. i’ll think i’m going towards point A and i’ll arrive at point B 15 minutes walk from A – but on the same X axis. its pretty frustrating because usually i feel comfortable orienting myself by memory. well, finally this border was broken – i think i’m getting the hang of it!

    as we were “crossing” into the other area we found some burger/meat place that was (a) right there when we (really, i am the driving force for “exhausted-can’t-stand-up-anymore”, so i should say “i” instead of “we”) needed it, and (b) seemed reasonably cheap. i ate a burger which was nice – i needed some beef to get me standing – and i had a glass of white (which always helps, don’t you know), karmun had some beef sticks and the usual coke. it came at a great (reasonable) cost and was a good break in the day.

    after lunch we successfully got into the area and very quickly found the right stores. i tried on the shoes, liked them, bought them, and the dress, liked it, bought it. by this point it was getting close to 5-6pm, so we headed back to drop off groceries and take a quick breather.

    after the fast -superfast- breather, off we went for karmun’s gucci store on rue Saint Honore. it was actually quite funny inside the store, because i was dress “ghetto” – white skirt, some fairly rumpled top, cheapo flats, and karmun actually put on the high heels to test them out so she look fabulous. i’m pretty sure the gucci guy thought either i’m the sugar moma, or the assistant to some chinese soap opera star.

    on the way there we stopped in some boutique little place and karmun bought a pair of really gorgeous, unique, french, beautiful, and possibly slightly overpriced shoes. (she doesn’t care what i say. she knows!)

    dropping her purchases off, we headed out to montemarte – karmun for the first time, and me for the 3rd. subway was inbelievably, insanely hot – no air movement, tonnes of people. i broke into an itchy sweat within 10 seconds of standing inside that cab, it was absolutely unbelievable. the weather has generally been sunny and hot – i’m not sure if we’re picking up color, but definitely not losing it.

    at the abessess subway station we ended up being the complete noobs by taking the stairs. no wonder there was an insane lineup for the elevator – the freaking stairs had 10345425098427 flights on them. we had to stop twice. and this is AFTER we’ve gained stamina from our 4th floor walk up!!! looking online, looks like we’re the noobs. ah well. excersize :-) turns out its the deepest subway station in paris. the name should’ve hinted…

    montemarte was lovely as usual. i drank my tiny (375ml) bottle of riesling; we ate croissants and cherry tomatoes; listened to the guitarists and tried to spy the pickpocketers. we even bargained down a caricature/artist guy to a very cheap price to paint the two of us :-) we promised not to tell how much so that he can try to get the full price from others. funny!

    the caricature is adorable and shall be uploaded.

    he (the painter) was a very enterntaining and animated guy, chatting to us about pickpocketers, watches, languages, other travellers (supposedly some insane russian couple paid him 150eu for the drawing of the 2 of them. i find it REALLY hard to believe!).

    when the sun got low enough we walked over to the moulin rouge – first time for both of us – and yes, very creepy area. no wonder i hadn’t been there before :-) but near the moulin rouge, 2 police cars, metro 30 seconds away, and lots of tourists who looked far more hapless than us (we are always clutching at our bags like mad). after hanging out there we went home, and high on good weather, good mood, and good health stayed up until 1am drinking tea and wine at the local corner bar (until they basically kicked us out).

    sleep came at 2:30am. my poor, jetlagged head probably can’t figure out what the hell am i trying to do with the shifting sleep times by 6 hrs each night.

    day 3 – st. germain and luxembourg gardens

    sunday. a quiet day in parisien life, when all is closed. not a single grocery store was open as we walked around throughout the day!

    to be frank, in the morning i felt like crap – i don’t know what’s happening but i think i maybe catching something similar to what karmun has/had. we shall persevere despite that. (and i’m sure it doesn’t help that the night before i got like 6 hours of sleep on our lumpy and uncomfortable mattress. jetlag is messing with my heeeaaad….)

    prior to leaving the right bank, we stopped by what essentially was the first coffee/food place we saw, and got a “petit dejeuner”, which translates into orange juice, toast,  and a great coffee. far too expensive, but actually ends up giving you a decent kick/boost to the day.

    crossing over the sienne, gazing at the supper sunny louvre, we came up to orsay to find an enormous line. saying “screw this”, we launched into the first attempt to find the luxembourg gardens. it was unsucessfuly as after about an hour of walking we ran into the sienne (you know the area where all the painters/posters/old books are sold? that area, but not as far down as to be near notre dame). as we walked through the vendors, whoops, we ended up essentially back where we started.

    at that point we both were pretty tired, and my body rebelled against walking. we sat down at a nearby cafe and spent at least an hour (i think maybe more) just chatting and people watching and slowly nursing our beer and coke (guess who had what ;-) ). the people watching was especially great – we had a nice pair of seats with our backs to the building, and no one in front of us (just the sidewalk/intersection), and so (a) it was safe to lean back; and (b) lots of people passing by meant that we spied on a variety of french women, men and tourists.

    after that much needed break we decided to get to the luxembourg gardens.

    ooh man, that was an insanely long walk. i’m pretty sure that i’m sick because karmun held out far better than i did. on the way we found a great bakery that was surprisingly open, and they had a great deal – a sandwich and a drink for 5 eu. that’s pretty dang reasonable, especially since the sandwiches were fantastic, and very big. we picked those up and barely completed our walk to the gardens, where we fell down on the basically nearest available bench in order to eat, and relax.

    we spent about an hour on that bench, just relaxing, watching people walk by and play tennis. a lot of really adorable french kids were running around and karmun was trying to take photos of them being all cute. i read my book.

    after that, again much needed, break we continued to walk through the park to get to the metro – way too exhausted to walk the hour back to the hotel. at the end of the day, we hit home by about 6pm, and i was DYING. everything hurt. the stupid, stupid mattress and the pillow are driving me mad; i feel like i’m the princess and the pea because karmun snoozes throughout the night, making me jealous, where as i toss and turn.

    eventually i went down for a nap, getting up at 8:15 – karmun was going to go walk around (its  sunny here until 9:30pm… so 8pm is the greatest hour for photography) – and this should tell you a lot about how crappy i was feeling, i WASNT SURE IF I CAN GO TAKE PHOTOS.

    i did get myself out; we did walk around; and i did give up first. she told me upon return that she got some briliant photos of the louvre; and i do not doubt that because the sunsets are magical around here. i just feel bad that im such a party pooper.

    i did sleep from about 9-10pm until 7:30am; the problem is that i woke up non stop and still have a headache on morning of day 4.

    paris – day 2 – champs d’elysee

    day 2 started at 12pm by karmun waking me up. she was feeling better, and we fairly efficiently got out and to the nearest cafe to have coffee and a sandwich for breakfast. again, jetlag meant i woke up starving – i dont think i ever wake up THAT hungry.

    after a quick non remarkable sandwich and a pretty decent cappuccino off we went – by foot – across the gardens, and to champs d’elysee. what a gorgeous, elegant, lovely street, which made me so freaking paranoid. i’m always freaked out someone will rob me!

    on the way there we stopped at the local supermarket, monoprix, where right away i found a pair of perfect beige/white flats for … 20 euro at 50% off. god bless the french sales. awesome shoes, which i wore later that day to dinner – really comfy. i’ll go back and see if i can get the same style in another color – its never bad to have flats on hand..! (especially light soled ones that can be worn on the boat :-) )

    anyway, in our walking we walked into zara (karmun put up with my constant whining of “oh its the same thing as north america” – she said “no no, zara is far better in europe” – holy crap she was right). i blatantly, purposefully and desperately ignored all clothing and focused on the mission of the day – shoes. while i found nothing, karmun found the perfect platforms with grey straps. just gorgeous.

    of course she was sweet enough to find me a pair in my size so now we have identical shoes in identical sized but holy crap they’re awesome :D

    after that, despite a lot of stopping and looking and enjoying ourselves, no further purchases were done until the end when k found 2 tshirts. we stopped for coffee/breaks/etc twice; took a lot of cheesy photos; drank 5 small bottles of water. and i got robbed!

    just kidding.

    almost.

    my pack of … cards … either fell out of my pocket or was swiped. i kept a tight hold on everything else but out of convienience, because everywhere its nice to play… cards … i kept the pack and the lighter (to, you know, light candles) in my pockets. no big loss. i’ll consider it my karma for pickpocketing fulfilled.

    i was still mad paranoid – at one point i freaked out someone will swipe my watch. i’m leaving it at home now as to not to freak out!

    we got home after a stop at monoprix for more water and to closer examine the clothing available. karmun left sooner due to exhaustion; i looked at everything and it was either my style but not my size or my size but not my style. no big loss because i feel like that area has been “checked off”.

    for dinner we just walked around until we totally lucked into a cheap, delicious, french bistro, which had no tourists, no one spoke english, and was very busy. on the way there we passed through the japanese area and also noticed some pretty cheap shoe and clothing stores. coming monday a black adorable dress to an olya near you – i hope!! (and also some cheap stylish flats. i hope. really really!)

    after a nice, very reasonably priced, dinner we went home and just chillaxed for about an hour. its hard to believe it is 1:45am right now – i’m still crazy jetlagged i guess! but time for sleep – busy plans for tomorrow. orsay, luxembourg gardens, shopping – if anything is actually open on sunday! – and montemarte in the evening :-)

    paris, je t’aime – everything was beautiful. it didn’t rain a drop and was gorgeously sunny instead of the forecasted thunderstorms. and now they’re forecasting sun for the rest of the week. how lucky ARE we?

    paris – end of day 1

    woke up far too late – jet lag really messing with my head. basically woke up around 6-7pm – don’t really remember, except K still had fever and we weren’t sure how high is it. i got her a thermometer, and turns out the fever was still ~38.6 i think. freaking high. (that’s european i.e. celcius for you american peeps). she went back to sleep and got out while there was daylight – even at 9pm!!

    took some photos (nothing yet to post, not the right laptop for processing – no apps on this thing). louvre was bathed in a golden sunset light; people in love walking around everywhere. i missed tim very much. it was really quite weird – i walked around louvre area, crossed the street, and went back into louvre, passing by the same places luke (friend from DA) and i walked 5 years ago. i remember the first time i saw the pyramids i actually had tears in my eyes – it was such a epic moment in my life. walking in the same alleyway as i entered the courtyard first, saxophone playing, was a really pleasant experience.

    after walking around some, i decided that its getting closer to 10 and i should eat something. (yes, that’s pretty late, but jetlag and the late daylight REALLY does mess with you head!). kept on walking until i found a place that wasn’t too empty, too busy, and had no “we speak english” on the menu. thankfully they took my (10:30, very late) order – salad and steak, delicious! and of course, a “quartier” – no idea how much it really was, but a small jug-like – of beaujoulais wine. tasty, happy.  ate my dinner, read my book, and chatted a bit with some nice people in the tables near me. nothing special and yet so amazingly special.

    eventually it was time to go – 11pm, it was getting dark. i took my sweet time stumbling back over the night parisian streets – people hanging out. i think jetlag helped me not freak out that i was walking by myself at what essentially ended up being 1am. when i reached out apartment, i found another open bar, sat for about 30 minutes more drinking more wine and reading my book, and then back to sleep.

    or so i thought. the computer/jetlag meant i fell asleep at 6am, and woke up at 12pm. not so bad all things considered (i.e., well, falling asleep at 6am).

    Paris – first few hours

    A few notes on Paris in the first few hours…

  • cab was cheaper than expected…
  • my bank isn’t giving me enough money
  • the city is every bit heartbreakingly beautiful as i remember. how i long to live here one day….
  • wherever you walk, there’s history. the buildin in which our apartment is housed is from the 17th century. they renovated it but left the original beams in.
  • paris is clearly a city of fashion. looking out the window it looks like theres a sewing school – there is a room full of dress makers dummies
  • K found the best place to stay. louvre is literally 2 minutes away; i accidentally walked there when i was looking for a supermarket.
  • when i was walking away from louvre, a woman stopped me and started asking “Louvre?? Louvre??” and i politely replied “Uhm, oui – parlez vous Francais..? Anglais?..” to which she again said “Louvre?? Louvre?”” so I asked “Do you speak English?” and she said “Yes! English!” so I explained where the entrance is, and how to get there. She thanked me and then said that my English is “beautiful”. I honestly replied that I’m from Canada. But – sweet! I look French!! At least to non French people!! :-)
  • the bread is so freaking awesome its not even funny. i’m afraid to try the croissants.
  • jet lag is totally messing with my head. its 1:30pm and i’m crazy sleepy. going to go nap soon.
  • i love, love, love, love LOVE this city. it pains me how much i love it. the building across the street from my balcony has a stone medallion at the top that says “1840 1917”, and is madly decorated with carvings. too gorgeous.