Paris (round 3)

Hi all!

Happy Easter! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend full of family-time and chocolate. As for me, I took off on Friday to visit the northern french city, Lille, before heading back to Paris to spend my Easter eating pastries and walking around the crowded streets that wind through the Bastille neighborhood. Luckily I was able to meet up with some of my friends in Paris and I was shown around the coolest restaurants and bars by my friend who is studying there for the semester.

Every time I go to Paris I am shocked by how different the city feels depending on where you make your home-base. Staying close to the tourist hubs of the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre offers great access to some landmarks that are not to be missed, but I really prefer staying in the (slightly) less-frequented corners of Paris, including the 10th, 11th and 3rd arrondissements. Going out to a bar next to canal St. Martin on Saturday night after having been wined and dined on the rue Oberkampf and seeing local parisiens browse the stalls of the Bastille market on a pristine Sunday afternoon make for a perfect weekend.

On a more somber note, I was shocked to have casually walked by the Bataclan theatre, as I was making my way down boulevard Voltaire. To see the brightly colored exterior hidden behind scaffolding and plywood was a sobering reminder of the horrible events of November 13th, showing how Paris is still mourning the innocent lives lost to the hands of terrorism. The fear and the threat of these random acts of hatred and violence has never been higher, especially after the recent attacks in Brussels. What I felt more than the fear, however, was the determination of Parisiens to spread the joie de vivre felt by all those who went out to see the Eagles of Death Metal and spend a night in the company of friends. The voices and shouts of people throughout the neighborhood surrounding the Bataclan echoed with energy and a revitalized commitment to live in spite of any threat of terrorism.

For me, this is Paris at its best; brazenly continuing doing whatever she pleases and not caring what anyone else thinks!

À la prochaine!

Thomas

A little French pride (even though this picture was taken in Dijon during christmas…)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 29th, 2016 at 11:18 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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