L'Art de Vivre. Parisian Journal I

Did you remember that day when I say I would never open a blog? Well, you just have to make a promise to break it. I will be posting weekly our Paris diaries from the last trip in late September, and (very) slowly I will be improving the design, photos, promotion and all that kind of stuff that means to have a blog. 

On Saturday, September 23 we arrived at 9 am to Frank and Vincianne’s, our AirBNB hosts. Theirs is a bohemian-like mini studio on the Marais, in a very old medieval house, it has too much charm, coziness, and it's incredibly tranquil. We left our luggage there and took out our cameras immediately and headed to Cafe Hugo on Place des Vosges, maybe my favorite cafe in all the city, maybe my favorite place in the world, Sebastian have had a tea and me an espresso, we saw a demonstration against work reforms go by, then we walked around the Place in a splendid sunny morning. 

This year I’ve had a great luck with weather in Paris, unlike our first travel there in which it rained every single day. We walked along rue des Francs Burgeoises taking pictures, very happy, until we got to Rue du Roi de Sicile which I didn't knew, so beautiful; seating in a bench we had some classic tartes for lunch from a boulangerie, which Sebastian hadn’t tried before, while we admired this gorgeous street with shops, pastry shops, chocolate stores and beauty, always beauty. We were already feeling a bit jetlagged and the burden of not having properly slept in what, 24 hours? It was hard. 

Then we went looking for the Orange to get some internet for our phones and the Orange boutique in Rivoli didn’t exist anymore! Rivoli was full of French teenagers hanging out. We went back home in the Metro and purchased successfully our Navigo cards, this time we did it, (this card allows you to use the metro unlimited times from Monday to Sunday, I recommend you to take you oun photo from your contry), and the guy in the counter was very kind to us, I guess because we spoke in French to him. After that we went grocery shopping in the G20 and bought Camembert of course! And tones of water, Gatorade and Redbull.

After resting a bit and eat and drink all kinds of hydrating liquids, Sebastian went to his cooking class in La Cuisine Paris. Meanwhile I took some photos around the Marais in the streets between the Seine river and Rivoli which I didn’t knew, it was a pleasant surprise! That part of the quartier is very beautiful, but which one of them isn’t? I looked for La Cuisine Paris and I couldn’t find it. As the Techno Parade went by I ran off away from it and, as I also was frustrated by not being able to find the Cuisine Paris, I went back home and slept a bit. When I woke up I told myself I had to fucking find it but again I couldn’t, I had to ask for directions in a book shop nearby and the lady that was working in it kindly told me where to find it, maybe because I asked her in French, and voilá, guys you have to take some french lessons, seriously. 

La Cuisine Paris is a very cool place, I was very anxious to see Sebastian, the few hours without him made me feel miserable alone in Paris, so when I met him I knew I didn't want to be a single minute without him in the most romantic city in the world. So we went for a walk on the quais by the Seine under a wonderful sunset light while we ate the delicious viennoserie Sebastian made in his class while he told me everything about it. 

We went up the terrace of the Institute du Monde Arabe to take some pictures and we were lucky to be able to do so in the 40 minutes we had left before they closed the place for the day. So we waited on the Quai St. Phillipe for the nightfall and that moment when the lights around the city and Notre Dame are turned on. We waited for a long, long time sitting in the Quai, resting, admiring l'ile, chilling, and talking about l’art de vivre, how Parisians do know how to enjoy life, without hurry, with beauty, talking, listening, loving, and not working too much. 

Finally our photographic project began with the lights of the City at 8 pm.