August 22-23, 2018
I'll preface this--I've been writing in journals since early high school--it'll be nine years this Halloween! Haven't missed a single day. So it's opportunities like this that make me happy that I'm so meticulous with record keeping. 😁
Wide-eyed me enters Europe for the first time with a wallet fat with two years of dining hall work money and a filled-to-the-brim 40 lb. Fjällräven (not the cute little kånken, but my beloved big boy backpack, my old reliable, the Räven 28). Running on fumes: it's midnight in L.A., but 9 a.m. in Paris.
The first day is a large triangle that gets a bit screwy at the end. I remember pretty girls, cute comic stores, and quiet churches, but many of the bakeries were closed on holiday. I reach Notre Dame and am in awe! About eight months or so before the tragic partial burning. All of a sudden I recall sacred spaces that I'd forgotten. I got flashbacks to mass at Catholic High School. I've never been religious, but they were often a welcome break--actually, consistently--ritually calming to me, as a way to escape for awhile.
I walk north to Sacré-Cœur and get that magnificent view of the city. I'd wanted to hit the Arc to round out the day but after passing through Montmarte, got lost for about three hours on the walk southwest. A nice man on a moped points the way back.
The second day is pure and good. It is the Louvre Day. Ah, how I love the Louvre day. I see a fraction of what it has to offer, but rest easy knowing I'll return with my family at the end of the year. At night--the Arc de Triomphe to the Eiffel Tower. The stuff you have to see the first time, in your first two days. And the sampler course is finished. 🇫🇷
