On the third day we went shopping on the Champs-Élysées so I didn't take my camera and thought I could use M's camera if I was really desperate. There weren't any special stores for shopping but I did find some lovely red shoes in ZARA (yep, couldn't have found a more original store, haha) which I wore on the same evening,...which happened to be our very first date.
Bizarre right? In all those months we've been together we had never gone on a proper date. We had been on special occasions together, like prom....but to dress up a little fancy for each other and eat dinner somewhere outside made it our first date for which apparently it was necessary to go all the way to Paris.
I felt obliged to act in a certain way that I wouldn't normally do around Max, somewhat shy and mysterious, which made it all the more awkward. Different from the usual awkwardness people experience on their first date, of course. It was very lovely. So lovely that we forgot time and that we still wanted to see the Eiffel tower blink.
The Metro's timetable was all confusing at that time - maybe at around 11ish. And as a result, we noticed that there was no train back when it was already too late. Either we would have to take a taxi or walk.
We chose to walk.
To my surprise, those red shoes proved to be super comfortable over our 2 hour midnight walk. Perhaps it was also the breeze at nighttime that made it much easier, or the fact that the streets were completely empty, but my generally-heavy feet carried me home effortlessly. Max joked about how I should click the shoes together three times repeating "There's no place like home" like Dorothy does in The Wizard of Oz which could speed up our journey home.
But I didn't mind the walk. Paris is especially beautiful when most of its residents are already asleep. In fact, I got rather hyper and sang random songs almost all the way home. Not well, I admit. But it helped make the walk seem shorter. And when we got to our apartment we rather rapidly fell asleep.
For the last day we visited the Sacré Coeur together with the Montmatre. Somehow fragments of my memory revealed to me that many artists collectively sat there displaying their paintings. Thus, I had to see it.
On the Metro there I noticed one of the good things about not understanding a language: due to the limited auditory information that is available it is easier to observe the people on the train and pick up many more distincitve details about the way they look, dress, behave, what they do. The girl with the messy hair and the big head phones, the guy nervously holding on to his bible while reading it whith a frowned forehead, the woman with the blue turban on their head matching her dress.
I thought how lovely it would be to take out a pen and paper and write those details down. Imagine their lives. Or even talk to them. Maybe it's the psychologist in me, maybe the creep. Or maybe I've read too much Sylvia Plath...
When we arrived at the Metro station closest to the Montmatre I blindly followed Max until we reached our destination. Art was everywhere, literally. May it be the old man sketching your portrait for 20€ or a girl with her flute presumably earning money to finance some of the fun of uni life.
The last pictures portray some of the artists I photographed of the centre of the Montmatre. I loved the concentration they had (particularly the lady with the cap and the glasses). I'm always very nervous when taking photos of strangers but luckily I had M to encourage me and overcome my fears.
I miss the time M and I had in Paris, already!
The Metro's timetable was all confusing at that time - maybe at around 11ish. And as a result, we noticed that there was no train back when it was already too late. Either we would have to take a taxi or walk.
We chose to walk.
To my surprise, those red shoes proved to be super comfortable over our 2 hour midnight walk. Perhaps it was also the breeze at nighttime that made it much easier, or the fact that the streets were completely empty, but my generally-heavy feet carried me home effortlessly. Max joked about how I should click the shoes together three times repeating "There's no place like home" like Dorothy does in The Wizard of Oz which could speed up our journey home.
But I didn't mind the walk. Paris is especially beautiful when most of its residents are already asleep. In fact, I got rather hyper and sang random songs almost all the way home. Not well, I admit. But it helped make the walk seem shorter. And when we got to our apartment we rather rapidly fell asleep.
For the last day we visited the Sacré Coeur together with the Montmatre. Somehow fragments of my memory revealed to me that many artists collectively sat there displaying their paintings. Thus, I had to see it.
On the Metro there I noticed one of the good things about not understanding a language: due to the limited auditory information that is available it is easier to observe the people on the train and pick up many more distincitve details about the way they look, dress, behave, what they do. The girl with the messy hair and the big head phones, the guy nervously holding on to his bible while reading it whith a frowned forehead, the woman with the blue turban on their head matching her dress.
I thought how lovely it would be to take out a pen and paper and write those details down. Imagine their lives. Or even talk to them. Maybe it's the psychologist in me, maybe the creep. Or maybe I've read too much Sylvia Plath...
When we arrived at the Metro station closest to the Montmatre I blindly followed Max until we reached our destination. Art was everywhere, literally. May it be the old man sketching your portrait for 20€ or a girl with her flute presumably earning money to finance some of the fun of uni life.
The last pictures portray some of the artists I photographed of the centre of the Montmatre. I loved the concentration they had (particularly the lady with the cap and the glasses). I'm always very nervous when taking photos of strangers but luckily I had M to encourage me and overcome my fears.
I miss the time M and I had in Paris, already!
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