It is my favourite city in all the world...however, Vancouver, New York, London, and San Francisco come pretty close. As I'm sure I've probably mentioned on this blog, I just completely bonded with this city coming out of the Metro around midnight after rain, delays and hassles coming from Canterbury, UK. We walked out of the St. Michel Metro and walked into this fantasyland of bustling cafes, Haussmann buildings,...warm summer night and just fell in love. Walked down to the Seine and saw Notre Dame...also, love at first sight. One of the first places I need to go when in Paris.
We were thrilled in 1972 to have sun and warmth after cool and rain in the UK in 1972 but in 1976 we had a rain experience. In 1976 we had this wonderful day of going to Reims and visting the Champagne caves and heard at Mumms that the company was now owned by Canadian Seagram's. We decided we really wanted a bottle of Rene Lalou Champagne which was very special...served to the Queen etc. They actually weren't really prepared to sell us a bottle saying it was "out of stock" but since we were Canadians they found one for us eventually. We really couldn't afford it given we had just spent 6 months in Europe, mainly France, having fun and then heading to an academic year at the University of Oregon as students. We bought it anyway, saying that we would save it for our "first born" or something special.
Well, we had a wonderful lunch in Reims, took the train back to Paris, exited the Metro in teaming rain and a thunderstorm and got completely soaked. Took off our clothes, got into bed to warm up, and cracked open the Rene Lalou. Fabulous...wonderful champagne, Paris in the rain...
A few photos from our last trip there in 2005 with Don and Elaine.
We had dinner in this super restaurant our last day in Paris. A very friendly Australian couple next to us jumped up and got in the photo...Australians are like that it seems!
