It was beautiful and fascinating and delicious and tiring and friendly and surprising and obscenely expensive.

Beautiful were the pristine parks, emblematic monuments, and the noble architecture. The Champs-Élysées wasn’t nearly as pretentious as I had anticipated. It kinda reminded me of Passeig de Gràcia here in Barcelona, but with an entire green section lined with trees at the bottom end that we don’t have here.

Fascinating were the plethora of museums, most of which were, for the sake of practicality, off limits to a married couple with a highly active eight month old child. We made it as far as the lobby of the Louvre but managed to squeak out a couple of wonderful hours at the Musée d’Orsay. I’m convinced I want a Van Gogh for our living room.

Delicious was the wide array of cuisine we enjoyed. We ate at the most amazing Italian, Tibetan, and Korean restaurants. And I was surprised to see how popular couscous was all over the city! I don’t think we had any typical French food the entire time we were there.

Tiring was sightseeing around Emily’s naps and basically not comprehending the scale of the city map we had and attempting to walk absolutely everywhere. We got to see more of the city than we would have if we had taken the metro everywhere, but you can’t really appreciate how un-pushchair-friendly the rugged cobblestones of Père-Lachaise are until you actually give it a try. The walk from Oscar Wilde to Jim Morrison via Sarah Bernhardt is a bitch.

Friendly were the people of Paris. Yes, that’s right. We even exchanged contact information with a wonderful French couple we met in the Jardin du Luxembourg. In restaurants, parks, shops, and on the street, I found people good humored and obliging. Although I do have my suspicions that this is a completely relative observation and, coming from closed Catalunya, anywhere would seem like a pleasure cruise.

Surprising was how much each neighborhood of Paris reminded me of another city I had once visited. Over the course of our stay in Paris, I had the distinct feeling that I was in Lisbon, London, Amsterdam, Mexico City, and New York. I was surprised to find that parts of Paris reminded me more of Brooklyn and Manhattan than anywhere else I had ever visited.

Expensive was everything! Obscenely expensive. Especially hotels and restaurants. It’s a good thing Jan found us a sweet self-catering apartment right off the Place de la République. On the whole, I found Paris to be more expensive than either London or New York. We quickly accepted that the supermarket was destined to provide the majority of our daily meals. So when we went out for dinner we made the most of it.

To celebrate our lovely trip to Paris, France, I have assembled yet another photo album of memories. Feel free to click here to view the slide show.