One can never write enough about Paris in the spring.
The way Parisians shake off the winter and begin to picnic on the banks of the Seine. How they wave enthusiastically at the tourists taking the last boat down the river, erupting into a delighted chorus of oohs and as the Eiffel Tower bursts into flickering light.
At 20h00 the sun has only just begun to set.
It descends over wine-drinking locals perched happily along Canal Saint Martin without any bother from the police. It ushers twilight towards bustling café terraces across the city where Parisians enjoy café by day and feast on , baguette, wine and cocktails by night.
The city is alive and breathes the spring air in deeply. It exhales amidst the manicured lawns of the Tuileries Garden set between the winding queues of the Louvre and the Place de la Concorde before the grand tree lined avenue of the Champs Elysees. A hive of shopping, glamour, luxury, cinemas, theatres, bars, night clubs, cafes and restaurants aesthetically ensconced between The Luxor Obelisk and the Arc de Triomphe.
To see it all, ones chariot is the Metro.
The underground rapid transit system that spirits the young, old, tourist, local, rich and poor across Paris’ 20 arrondissments spiraling from the centre like a snail and warning ‘beware of pickpockets’.
Perhaps most recognisable among its eclectic districts is historic Montmartre. A neighbourhood come to life from art history textbooks chronicling the Belle Époque and scenes from ‘Amelie’ and ‘Moulin Rouge’. The iconic red windmill standing tall and incessantly photographed on Boulevard de Clichy in the district of Pigalle spitting out tourists baulking at the price of one its famed cabarets.
For many a photograph is enough and entrance fees are saved for the Louvre and the Musee D’Orsay where buskers play the cello a stone’s throw from the tourists crowded around Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night over the Rhone’, 1889 self-portrait and ‘Portrait of Eugene Boch’ of which the artist expressed his love for the Belgian painter writing “Behind his head, instead of painting the ordinary wall of this shabby apartment, I will paint infinity”.
A treasure trove of art, architecture, incredible food and wines, Paris is a gift one wishes everyone may one day open.
As a solo traveller people-watching from sunny café terraces, gorging on spring’s harvest of strawberries, apricots and delicious cheese in Luxembourg Garden or as a couple dodging a gold ring scam before indulging in the romance that is inescapably, spectacularly at the city’s heart.
Named the City of Love and the City of Light, Paris is the rare metropolis that lives up to its legend and as people flock to its festivals, markets and amble through its historic streets, one can’t help but smile, soak it up and vow to return because the rumours are true.
Paris au Printemps is everything they say it is.
It’s a mood, a lifestyle and a love story.
