The American Returns to Paris

Before starting this trip, I bought lots of multi-purpose clothing – purple water-proof jacket, pastel blue sun-proof shirts and hats, khaki pants with zip-off legs to make capris … All with the common theme of being feminine but functional.  I’ve long seen traveling backpackers, typically with scruffy beards and beat-up shirts – and that wasn’t going to be me (as long as I avoid frogs’ legs – right, Dad?).

Mad Men dolls at FAO Schwartz.. go figure

I rushed around my last day in the city… I hung out with Kathy, eating at E.A.T. on Madison Ave, perusing high-end department stores, gawking at the Trump Tower and Apple Store, and finishing up by checking out the super-clean (still existent) version of FAO Schwartz.  I also managed to get in some last-minute photo time at Grand Central.

Then I rushed back to Rahul’s place, threw together my stuff and got my turtle on.  I don’t know what travel motto you all have, but I think that travel is most memorable when something goes wrong… and something invariably goes wrong.  Yet something will always go amazingly right, too, perhaps just to balance things out.

I think back to all those family vacations and the parts that stand out, and I can think of all the accidents, near-accidents, injuries, getting lost, and crying because we accidentally drove into Illinois when I was finally going to be one state ahead of my brother!

Playing with shutter speed in Grand Central

With my long coat on in warm weather, I got to line 4, transferred to line A, rushed around the hectic Penn Station, until someone finally told me that all New Jersey-bound trains were cancelled due to a derailment.  I joined the mob of general confusion, and, with great luck, I managed to catch one of the last trains heading to Newark Airport.  I sat down in my seat only to find that my cute ¾ -sleeve top is drenched in sweat.  Well, with the general stench of Paris, I shouldn’t stand out too much. :P

Semi-fashionable traveler tip #1: Wear black.  I guess in some sense travelers are like married couples, looking more and more similar over the course of a trip.  I'm slowly giving up on this nice-clothes thing.  Practicality can only be so attractive.

But, as luck would have it, security was fast (would they really want to pat me down?) and I ended up having all three seats in my row empty.

And now I'm in Paris!  I've gotten so used to having GPS on my phone that (of course) I didn't write down the address or even the full name of the hostel I'm staying at.  Oy.  While I daydreamed about have a bolognese panini for lunch on the long train-ride in, I ended up going to "Chez McDo" for a chicken ranch wrap and internet.

But now I'm here in one of my favorite cities and I can't wait to explore it with my new camera!  On the agenda: macarons, paninis, more macarons, gelato, perhaps going into the Cordon Bleu and begging them to let me into that macaron class...  A respite before my life is taken over by two pre-teen boys.

First order of business: pain au chocolat (chocolate croissant).

Some more pictures of NYC...

Some arch..

Fall colors in Central Park

My photographic partners in crime