An American in Paris

My entire week in Paris, I've been thinking about old movies. Being in these old cities makes me think of simple classics like "An American in Paris," and I'm not going to lie, I may have broken out into song and swung around a couple of streetlights channeling my inner Gene Kelly. in the middle of my stay in Paris I had to stop and ask myself WWGKD? Also known as, What Would Gene Kelly Do? So, with that questioned being asked, I decided I needed another day in Paris!!!

An extra day in Paris has way too many options.... Les Invalides? Scare Coeur? Le Orangerie? Arc de Triomphe? Sainte Chapelle? Le Conciergerie? Tour Eiffel? SO. MANY. OPTIONS!!!!!! My sister, Gretchen, gave me a list of her favorite things to do in Paris, so I decided to start from the top and see where I ended up! I started my day at Le Orangerie, which is a tiny little museum famous for Monet's paintings of water lilies. The renovation on the museum has been completed to restore the rooms back to how Monet had originally designed the rooms to house the paintings. The crisp white walls in an oval room with an open ceiling lets in the sunlight. The lighting changes depending on the time of day, so you can just sit in the rooms and watch the light move over the paintings that take up the entirety of the walls. I made my way through the rest of the museum, but somehow ended back in the oval rooms just looking at the lilies.... It truly is peaceful, even with all the crazy people trying to take selfies with essentially a wall... A beautiful wall, but good luck fitting the whole thing in a picture with your face...

As I was leaving Le Orangerie, I nearly got killed by a Citroen car rally in the courtyard. These drivers are INSANE!!! I think back to the U.S. car rallies I've been to and just think about how many heart attacks and fights would have happened if you tried to park your cars like that there... Crazy stuff. So because of my near disaster out car rally death, I decided to go to a church. One of my friends mentioned that Sainte Chapelle was their favorite place in Paris, and it truly is worth seeing! I went with only the knowledge that there were beautiful windows. There are not beautiful windows there, there are complete works of art in window form. It is astounding how much detail can be put into a single pane of glass! My jaw essentially dropped when I walked in, and continued to fall even further once the sun started streaming through the windows. There is no way to describe or even take a picture of it, you simply just have to see if yourself!

I'm not sure if Gene Kelly was big into ice cream, but if he were a connoisseur of ice cream, I hope he would go to Berthillon. Berthillon is one of those ice cream places that you know is good by the line waiting around the corner. And yes, it is worth it! I definitely did a Gene Kelly heel click once I got my passion fruit and pear ice cream.

Love, Alison