Paris, je t'aime

Having lived in France for almost a year, I still hadn't yet been to Paris, the epicenter of the French state and the capital of all things delicious...croissants, macarons, and chocolate. Pourqoi pas? I don't know...but who doesn't love Paris, especially in spring when the city is just waking up from winter, and it's about a month away until the start of the tourist season. After some planning (and reading articles to get me excited for Paris. Scroll to the bottom for my complete list of articles), R and I chose the first weekend in April just because...the weather forecast looked promising and we hoped to find the flowers in bloom in Paris' many green spaces.

Nous avons arrivés à Paris après a quick 2.5 hour train ride via the TGV, or le train de grande vitesse. R and I brought reading materials, breakfast, and my knitting, but we ended up watching the show out our window. This is no Acela train. The TGV is quick (understatement), and we sped by quaint villages with big churches, stately châteaux, meadows with sheep, cows, and old stone farmhouses. To me, this is France..the beautiful flowing countryside. I sighed appreciatively as R and I pointed out different things to each other as we sped by them. Before we knew it, 2.5 hours had passed and our train was approaching Gare de Lyon, our destination.