Idée fixe...

EF - Live The Language - Paris from Albin Holmqvist on Vimeo.

Who says you can't be in love with a City? I want to send Paris love letters and Valentines every single day. You've heard of istockphoto.com, right? I'm totally starting istalkparisphotos.com.

:)

Deux semaines à Paris ...

A little peek into my Paris trip last month...

This is me after about 20 hours without sleep, and a 9 hour time-change. Pretty!

Concorde fountain in front of Hotel de Crillon.

Fraises! I loved these little fruit boxes so much.

This is by far one of my favorite pictures from the trip, because you can clearly see the affect of my over-eating EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. that I spent there. My mother calls this "the jellybean"- because with my butt and belly sticking out, I'm shaped like one. I said beforehand that I was planning to pack on 5 Lbs of exquisite French fat as a souvenir- and my God, I really tried. Alors là... it went away about a week after I got home. Oh, and this was taken at our awesome excursion to le marche puces aux Porte Clignancourt. This is the oldest flea market in Paris, and it absolutely floored me. I wanted to rent a Matson container and ship every inch of it home with me.

So this is the provenance of all those shabby-chic, vintage replica tchotchkes- except these are the REAL thing, people! They make everything else look so stupid. No wonder the French feel superior... even their old rubbish is something everyone else tries to emulate. Rachel Ashwell so wishes she was French.

An elephant skull. AN ELEPHANT SKULL! What the WHA?

This is Amélie Poulain's cafe. We ate a very yummy lunch here and got wee bit tipsy on Ricards.

Maybe my number one favorite photo from Paris. The Bensimon store is also located on this street. Oh my gosh... seriously! Bensimon kills me. I bought a new pair for myself and some child-size souvenirs. ;)

You know I don't eat ice cream, right? Umm... when I heard "rose glacé", I totally forgot about that. After praying in Notre Dame, I like to enjoy a nice little rose flavored gelato. You know... no big deal.

Cafe Flore! I ate the most incredible gaspacho here and just sat in awe.

Our metro home-stop was Concorde. Can you even believe this tile work? It stretched in an arch, all the way across the tracks and the entire length of the station. Huge. I was so in love with this spot.

For that matter, I was completely head-over-heels in love with this entire City. France has wrapped its fist around my heart. Every negative preconception was squashed and every fantasy was magnified by the reality of this sparkling City. The people were incredible. The food... the architecture... the history... le Rue de Bac... Murakami in Versailles... ducks in the Tuilleries... sailing pirate ships in Luxembourg gardens... ferrying down the Seine... sticking stickers... oggling street signs... shopping... Champs-Elysées by dawn... Tour Eiffel by night... and every magical moment between. I miss this place so much, I can't even bear to reset my watch.

Hallo, from Amsterdam...

*Incidentally, this German keyboard chooses to ignore my attempts at apostrophes- so pardoning that...

This morning I woke up in Paris for the 9th time...

I spent the morning eating a big yummy breakfast, and strolling around the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs Elysees-

before hopping on a metro to Gare du Nord station and finally, a Eurostar to Holland...

Land of the wooden shoe...

Above, to the right, and just behind the camera perspective is the room I^m sitting in this evening as I type.

Below, and just to the left- is the little blue cabin on a lake where I will be sleeping tonight.

Goedenavond & gauw tot ziens!

Good evening and see you soon!

xo

So excited, I might jump out of my skin!!!